Obama Camp To Ignore Ohio, Florida?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Electoral College, Florida, McCain, Ohio, RepublicansIn yet another sign that the Obama camp is really looking to remix the electoral map, “must win” status is being shifted from the traditional bellwethers to some that may surprise you.
In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections. [...]Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida. Plouffe also has been touting Obama’s appeal in once Republican-leaning states where Democrats have made gains in recent gubernatorial and congressional races, such as Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota.
I get Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, and Montana, Alaska and North Dakota seem responsive to a post-partisan message…but Georgia?
Here’s their reasoning…
Georgia has many unregistered black voters who could turn out in record numbers to support the first major-party nominee who is black, he argued. Plouffe said the campaign also will keep an eye on Mississippi and Louisiana as the race moves into the fall to see if new black voters could put them within reach.
Seems like race will both hurt and help Obama this campaign season. But if it could really change the electoral map this much, one has to think if Obama were elected, served 8 years and then another Dem was running…his path to the Oval Office wouldn’t be sustainable for non-black Democrat prez candidates.
We shall see…
This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Electoral College, Florida, McCain, Ohio, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
He’s not ignoring any state Justin, he’s just not putting all of his eggs into just two states
June 16th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
It would be a major mistake to ignore Ohio. It’s his to lose given the economy there.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
[...] can’t help but think this could be an indication that the Obama campaign’s strategy to focus more attention on new states in this election cycle may actually [...]
June 16th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
[...] Chatter is growing for the former Georgia senator and one of the founders of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, so could this be one of the reasons why the Obama camp thinks the Peach State is in play? [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 10:30 am
A post-President Obama Democrat could not, perhaps, take the same path as he took to the Presidency. ut that is not the same as saying that the changes in demographics over the next 8 years wouldn’t potentially open up other paths which are not currently available.