The Ohio GOP is gleefully touting this story as evidence that Obama is writing off the Buckeye State. It seems tough to read it that way, and no wise campaign would put all their presidential eggs in one state basket, so to speak. Having said that, it’s interesting that after a disastrous 2006 for the state GOP, many observers thought Ohio looked like it was trending blue this year. But the evidence is mounting that it’s still purple: there’s Obama’s poor performance in the state’s primary, coupled with a hard time with working-class white workers in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and continuing polls showing the state in play (although SurveyUSA shows a post-primary bump for Obama).

In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections. At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.

It’s not impossible for Obama to lose Florida and Ohio and simultaneously win “Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states” as the article suggests. But I suspect that if Obama loses Ohio, those other states will be tough to win.