After financing Palin’s wardrobe, the RNC is shrinking McCain’s advertising budget in swing states.

The official version is the combination RNC-McCain advertisements are muddying the ticket’s message by requiring information about local races.

Crooked Timber has another theory.

[W]hile mixed messages are a significant problem, I (as an admitted naif on these issues) would have thought that getting completely swamped by your opponent’s advertising is a rather bigger one. Isn’t a more plausible interpretation of this decision that the RNC are finally pulling the plug on their subsidization of the McCain campaign, and the McCain folks are trying to put the best face that they can on it?