It's hard to make a trend out of two weeks. Has spending gone up and down by a few percentage points each week for a while? If so, then is this a decrease or just a normal fluctuation. I assume that there is a finite amount of media buys available in a given week. It could be that Obama, and McCain, bought all they could for the week and that happened to be less than what was available the week before. Also, look at the National and Cable buys. How much of the money taken out of local media markets is now directed back at those very same media markets via Cable or the networks - spending in which rose almost 300 percent?
...while increasing spending in blue states that supposedly aren’t vulnerable?
He increased in three, Iowa, Maine and New Hampshire. Could be he sees the need to shore up support. There may have been some drop in internal polls. New Hampshire has to be considered a in play because it's been a traditionally Republican state, so Obama's spending more there and in Maine, since part of New Hampsire falls in Maine media coverage. As for Iowa, I'll point out that Missouri is in play, and parts of north and northeastern Missouri are covered by Iowa media markets. The total buy in Iowa went up a whopping $22,000, that could explain it. So now it's your turn. If North Carolina and Nevada are so safe for McCain, then why did his media buys in those two red states go up several times more than Obama's increas in blue states?
To imply that I or anyone else has said NV (won by three points the last two Presidential elections) is "safe" is absolutely laughable. Next?
And you've answered your own question on NC. Apparently, according to you and the media, Obama is leading in a host of red states like VA, NC, CO, FL, and OH. So why wouldn't McCain advertise there?