Gibbs said the president’s visits to Wisconsin were just an insurance measure. Gibbs: Romney in Pa. is 'desperate'

Robert Gibbs, a top adviser to President Barack Obama’s reelection effort, said Friday that visits to Pennsylvania by the GOP ticket are a sign Republicans are getting “desperate.”

“I think it means the Romney-Ryan campaign is desperate to figure out how to win this race outside of the states that they’ve been contesting it in for 15 months,” Gibbs said on CBS’ “This Morning.” “I think that’s all Pennsylvania is for the Romney-Ryan campaign. Look, John McCain spent the last weekend of 2008 in Pennsylvania in a desperate attempt to do this as well.”


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On the other hand, Gibbs said Obama’s visits to Wisconsin — a safe state on all the paths to victory suggested by the Obama team — were just an insurance measure.

“We want to lock it in,” Gibbs said, adding the president will present his case “one last time.” Other Obama aides have implied the state was safe until GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney selected Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Polls from Franklin & Marshall College and the Philadelphia Inquirer have shown the president with a four- and six-point lead in the Keystone State over the past week. In Wisconsin, polls have also shown Obama leading, though the margins have varied. Surveys from Marquette University Law School and St. Norbert College show a lead approaching double digits, while an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gives him a three-point edge.

Romney is visiting Pennsylvania on Sunday, a late addition to his final blitz through swing states. Ryan is stopping there on Saturday.