In the wake of several new polls, both public and private, that show John McCain just a few points ahead of his Democratic opponent in his home state, the Republican presidential nominee has launched a new round of automated calls in his own state, according to media reports and sources in Arizona.

Describing Illinois Senator Barack Obama as "dangerously inexperienced," the so-called robo-calls are the first step in persuading voters to back the Arizona senator, according to several sources familiar with presidential politics and McCain's campaign in particular.

Several recent polls, including and Arizona State University poll released Tuesday night, have showed McCain leading but by a statistically insignificant margin. The Cronkite/Eight poll released Tuesday showed McCain leading his home state by just a 46%-44% margin.

"If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror," the caller says. "Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008."

GOP strategists from across the country are increasingly concerned that McCain's poll numbers are dipping below a point at which the Republican can make a comeback. Obama is competing virtually exclusively for formerly Republican states, including Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana, along with perpetual swing states Florida and Ohio.

McCain has already surrendered at least two states President Bush won in 2004, giving up in Iowa and New Mexico. One Republican source aware of GOP spending priorities says the Republican National Committee, in an effort to prevent a dramatic landslide, has transfered advertising money from swing state Colorado in order to shore up ordinarily heavily Republican Indiana, which Bush won by twenty points in 2004. The RNC is also advertising in Montana and West Virginia, both states once considered heavily Republican.

But losing any of those states would pale in comparison to a Republican candidate losing his home state. While Democrat Al Gore lost Tennessee in 2000, no Republican presidential nominee has lost his home state since Thomas Dewey lost the Empire State against Franklin Roosevelt, a fellow New Yorker, in 1944.