A Battle Across 50 States
Does Anyone recognize this map? This has been the cause of the Democrats defeats over the last two presidential elections. The Democratic reliance on winning the Northeast and the West Coast, and then battling out for the remaining electoral votes across the Rust Belt and Florida. It’s a strategy that has allowed the Republicans to win the country with a candidate as weak as George W. Bush. Also, by not contesting the “jesusland” states across the South and West, Democratic turnout has become lower and lower across those areas, and the democratic party has become a wandering ghost of a political agency across that large (an area whose population is growing faster than the Northeast and West Coast’s) geographic area. Meanwhile the Republican outspend the Democrats in those states that matter to the election, and the Democrats go down in defeat in what appears to be a close electoral count, but what really isn’t because the democrats never battle for all five-hundred and thirty eight votes but only for one to two hundred electoral votes.
Well, no more. The Democrats have more money than the Republicans this year (of all the new exciting things I hoped for out of the Dems, this is one thing I never expected), they have the more exciting if not controversial candidate, and a strategy to contest the Republicans in all 50 states. As a result of the primaries, the Democrats have sophisticated ground organization in every state, in a grassroots campaign structure unknown to the Democrats in modern history.
Other things the Obama campaign has up their sleeve? A day after Hilary’s concession speech, he’s already began to hire Democratic organizers from her campaign in a number of key states. He’s hired Hilary and Governor Ted Strickland’s Ohio campaign organizer. We have to see how much weight Hilary will throw into the campaign herself (right now I think she’s most likely going to take a well deserved break and quietly, stepping up her leadership in the Senate, in the opes of replacing good ol’ Harry Reid. Watch out Hildog, he was a boxer) but the nature of her speech the other day gives many of us hope.
Obama’s also planning on buying TV ad time in 25 states, which is more than any other presidential campaign before it (Bush had put up ads in 17). Meanwhile, McCain is launching a campaign to try to gain the Hilary bloc.
Yes, thats right. These people. I think it’s a stupid play to believe that most Hilary supporter will line up for McCain, bu I think what the McCain campaign is hoping that they can duplicate a sort of “Reagan Democrat” or key Dmocratic swing vote for McCain. I’m hopeful that McCain keeps this up really, mostly because as the campaign goes on, Obama and not McCain is going to grow more evident as the better choice for feminists and because if Hilary decides to hop into the election again on behalf of Obama, if she says jump this group will mostly say, “how high?”
There are a number of reasons why this is a stupid choice for McCain, mostly because a lot of the women’s issues this group espouses are diametrically opposed to the platform of the Republicans: pro-life and whatnot. McCain meanwhile will continue to forget to play to his base.
-Marc-
