I choose not to believe this.
It makes infinitely more sense to assume they knew they had lost in Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and Colorado, and needed some EV somewhere. That's certainly what it looked like.
One problem in the polls could be that they weren't asking respondents how they identified themselves in 2008.
They used to, I believe. They certainly ask (and weight by, "party id" in the US sense being a nonexistent concept) how you voted last time here in Germany. The problem with that is of course that people lie or, with all those last-minute tactical decisions intra camp, just don't remember.
