If they sounded a bit familiar, you either have a great memory, or you read this 2016 story from The Post's Robert Costa and Abby Phillip on Sunday night:

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is redirecting his attention to traditionally Democratic states in the final days of the 2016 campaign in an urgent attempt to expand what for weeks has been an increasingly narrow path to victory. Following FBI Director James B. Comey’s surprise announcement Friday that the agency would once again examine emails related to Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, Trump and his advisers see a fresh opportunity to make gains in states that most public polls have shown as out of reach. They spent the weekend deliberating ways to seize on what they see as a dramatic turn in the campaign’s closing chapter and scramble the political map following a rough stretch beset by controversy. [Why Comey was able to defy Justice bosses on Clinton email announcement] Trump held rallies Sunday in Colorado and New Mexico, and he was scheduled to make two stops Monday in Michigan — and visit Wisconsin the day after that.

It's a story that seems to get written every cycle. This year is no different.

In the race's closing days, the Trump campaign is putting new focus on New Mexico, Michigan and Wisconsin in an effort to increase his number of paths to victory on Election Day. Four years ago, it was Romney going into Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota in the waning days.

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It didn't work. President Obama won all three of them by at least seven points. Romney, it turned out, was still closer to victory in the more traditional swing states, making the strategic decision to focus late resources on blue states seem like a bad idea, in retrospect.

Of course, it wasn't a strategy of choice; it was one of desperation. The Romney campaign knew it was unlikely to win on the map it had. The team needed to try something different and — at the very least — attempt to change the narrative of impending doom. After all, who knew what could happen if Romney put another state or two in play?

Trump faces a similarly narrow path to victory. Even as the national polls have tightened — the most recent Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll shows Hillary Clinton at 46 percent and Trump at 45 percent — Trump is losing most of the swing states he needs to triumph in the electoral college.

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Even if he carries must-win states such as Florida and Ohio, getting to 270 electoral votes from there wouldn't be easy, given his deficits in traditional swing states such as Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia — along with his inability to close the gap in Pennsylvania, a blue-leaning state that his campaign has been pursuing for months.