The unconventional tactics (for pre- ’08 politics) of the Obama online campaign continue to generate new nuggets of insight, as one looks back at the path to his now-likely Democratic nomination.

But it’s not needed, when one can find evidence online today.  These aren’t “I’m presumptive nominee so I’ll advertise anywhere” moves. The places where he has advertised for months suddenly look very smart indeed.

Polls show him trailing Hillary Clinton by as much as 2:1 in West Virginia, which votes Tuesday, yet Obama is a paid presence at wchs6.com in Charleston. His commitment to advertise in West Virginia online channels dates back to February at several sites throughout the state.  Will this help him win the primary?  Strongly doubt it.  Help him in the general to woo back the Hillary voters?  Could be. 

Then there is the case of Florida and Michigan, from which some of the last, slender reeds of Clinton’s hopes are dangled.

In the face of claims that he is directly responsible for denying Michigan’s delegation at the convention this summer (*cough* Lannie Davis * cough*), Obama continues to advertise in Michigan as he did back in winter, at Grand Rapid’s “premier news, sports, information site” and at Grand Rapids’ NBC affiliate web page, woodtv.com.  Are these really the early-warning signs of Wolverine-abandonment?

In Florida, Obama is visiting this week but his first online ads there went up in mid-March or earlier, at Tampabays10.com.  They are up again now.

Even in Pennsylvania, where the race is over, he lost badly. That’s the conventional wisdom, and the result at the polls certainly bears this out.  Yet he continues to advertise online as he has consistently since mid winter.  In the state where Obama supposedly lost his mojo, he is advertising this week at the Erie domain, GoErie.com, and in Scranton.  I understand that many small-market sites require buying blocks of ads for weeks at a time, so it is possible some of these are just old contracts being played out.  But consider this: 

Who thought these lost primaries in Michigan and Florida would still be an issue lo, these many months later?  What kind of community of aggrieved Democrats might one have met and nurtured - after their primaries were missed - if there were legitimate grievances by grassroots Democrats to organize and build upon? Yet who advertised in Michigan and Florida all winter, online, relatively inexpensively, while she did not? 

You have to think that some of these moves belong on the lengthening list of missed opportunities by the Clinton campaign.