Pa in play for Romney: NYT

Mitt Romney forces haven't been advertising in Pa in weeks, but that changed today with a postive spot from GOP SuperPAC Restore Our Future, going over his work on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and starring skater Kristi Yamaguchi. It's part of a $7.2 million ad buy in Pa and 10 other battleground states.

Poll expert Nate Silver at the NYT writes today that Romney should fight for Pa, as it's possible it could help him win the presidency if he loses Ohio:

It’s plausible, for instance, that Mr. Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout will be more of a disadvantage in Ohio than in Pennsylvania, since the former state relies more on auto industry jobs. Meanwhile, the new voter identification laws in Pennsylvania could give Mr. Romney an extra point or two there, if they’re upheld by the courts.

Mr. Romney will be in fairly bad shape if he loses Ohio. But conditional upon that, Pennsylvania might be his least-bad alternative to pick up the requisite number of electoral votes. Wisconsin and Michigan, for instance, might seem like compelling alternatives — but they are typically a bit more Democratic-leaning that Pennsylvania, and Mr. Romney’s polls have been no better in them on the whole.

If Mr. Romney’s standing rebounds in Ohio — or if the polls suggesting he’s in trouble there are wrong begin with — he could rely on a Keystone-Buckeye parlay. For instance, if Mr. Romney won both Ohio and Pennsylvania, that might suffice for him to win the election despite being swept in the competitive states of the Mountain West, like Colorado and Nevada.