Romney buys TV time in Pennsylvania

The Hill's Cameron Joseph reports that Mitt Romney's campaign is reserving airtime in the Philadelphia media market for November 5 and 6.

The Obama campaign is responding in kind, and will also play some small screen defense. So what does this say about the state of the race?

Oh, as with so many things, you can spin it both ways.

The Obama campaign is calling it "desperate", and indeed, when John McCain tried a PA stunner in the waning days of 2008, it was desperation. And then there's this -- if Romney really thought he was ahead in Ohio, would he be making a play for Pennsylvania? Probably not.

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign can spin this as a good sign of an expanding battleground. If Pennsylvania is as close as polls suggest (RCP puts it at 4.7%) and Romney has cash to burn, then why not? After all, Obama did this crazy thing of playing for INDIANA in 2008, and that worked out, no?

I think the reality is somewhere between the two campaigns' spins.

Romney probably wouldn't be paying too much attention to PA if Ohio were going swimmingly, but Obama probably wouldn't be going up on air and desperately crying "desperate" if PA was as blue as it claims.

Here, by the way, is the new Romney ad on coal that will play in Pennsylvania.