Could Obama Redraw The Map?

During an April 25 conference call to unveil the Obama campaign's 50-state voter registration drive, deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand sounded genuinely exasperated as he tried to steer reporters to the topic at hand.

Despite his best efforts, those on the call didn't request any further details about the effort. No one posed questions about the drive's goals or how the campaign thinks it could affect Obama's general election prospects. Instead, they brought up the latest distractions: What does the campaign make of Jeremiah Wright's new comments? Are advisers worried that Obama has a problem attracting working-class white voters? And so on.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Gma11]

This is EXACTLY what we need to even begin to solve the many serious crises we are facing - a leader who his the ability to think "outside the box."

I keep thinking of Einstein's statement that no problem can be solved with the same consciousness that created it. That's what I've seen in politics for decades.

It's more than time for such a creative, intelligent individual to take the lead.

[vsign]

I will hold out hope until the convention when I hope the superdelegates read the rules again and stop being brainwashed by Obama and his media. They are suppose to stop a train wreck from happening. The superdelegates are suppose to keep a candidate from being nominated who cannot win the General.

If Hillary is not nominated -

There will be a revenge vote.

I will never vote for someone who has inspired so much Clinton hating, and white hating, and women hating and hating of old people.

Never. It will no longer be the Democratic party.

[IndependentAllways]

"There will be a revenge vote". WOW!! How sad of a commentary this is. Please do not vote if you feel this way. This is the most unpatriotic comment you can give. Your personal hate and anger weighs more than our children's future is what you are saying. Shame on all of you who think this way.
I can't get over this "revenge vote" comment.

[JackND]

I love it when they actually put it on the record.

A revenge vote yet. Did he really say that?

The revenge is on those that have to endure McCain's policies.

[botboy]

Quick, everyone be scared. Go run and hide under a rock. Come out after the election. We can always whine and cry our way through another 4 years of McSame...Right

Get a life vsign. ITS TIME TO FALL IN LINE. Or would you prefer more "neocons" in the courts. Perhaps a bigger divide between the have and have-nots is in order. Perhaps you would like to continue to drag the honor of this great country through the mud. Perhaps you would like to have the blood of thousands more of our brave men and women on YOUR hands.

I liked your girl, but its over. Time to move on and get our country back.

[AMJordan]

teeny-bopper alert!

[westreal]

Yes he can! Yes he can!

I don't know why the Democratic party didn't adopt this strategy years, even decades ago.

[lowry99]

Just going out a limb here but: no, Obama will not redraw the map. No he will not win Nebraska and freaking Iowa and Candyland.

Maybe one of the problems uneducated whites have is that for their support of Hillary Clinton instead of seeing the outstretched hand of a uniter-not-a-divider they instead have been tarred as stupid racists by the Obamaton hordes. Somehow when you're an obvious hypocrite it makes people hesitant to "unite" with you.

[fnygy]

That's a broad sword you're using and it cuts both ways. When Mrs. Clinton says that "hard working Americans, white people" won't vote for him, what's implicit is "because he's black." At least, that's what I hear. I know some of my "hard working white American" relatives were insulted by it because they said so. It was Mrs. Clinton who insulted them, not the "Obamatons."

[jah2008]

Absolutely. I have a friend from West Virginia who is white, middle-aged female, no college-degree, and she's insulted by Hillary's comment and her behavior through out the campaign. My friend is supporting Obama.

[abby4ever]

***Are advisers worried that Obama has a problem attracting working-class white voters?"***
I know lots of people hate Andrew Sullivan, but when I posted the link to this article yesterday I didn't get one complaint about who authored it, which is unusual---most people thought it was a great read, and true. It also says, at the end, something insightful---and maddening--- about Bill and Hillary's relationship with black voters. Here's the link, if you want to read it---it's not very long:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3907239.ece

Even jerks can tell the truth sometimes, and even be insightful.

[cmeans29]

A great read indeed. Andrew endorsed Obama in previous articles and during Bill Maher's show.

[McFlipFlop]

Here's Obama's winning electoral college scenario, which he is winning NOW according to polling, with 274 votes: California (55), New York (31), Pennsylvania (21), Illinois (21), Michigan (17), New Jersey (15), Massachusetts (12), Washington (11), Maryland (10), Minnesota (10), Wisconsin (10), Colorado (9), Oregon (7), Connecticut (7), Iowa (7), Nevada (5), New Mexico (5), Hawaii (4), Maine (4), Rhode Island (4), Delaware (3), DC (3), and Vermont (3).

It could be a landslide. He could also take: Ohio (20), Virginia (13), and North Carolina (15). And who knows what else? I'd like to see him take Alaska (3). :-)

[StephenS]

In 2004, every state in your 274 electoral votes either went Democratic or went Republican by 4.7% or less. No big shifts to the Democrats despite the Iraq war and the economy.

Only the 26 votes in CO, IA, NV, and NM switch to Democratic from 2004, while New Hampshire goes to McCain. And the latest Rasmussen and/or SurveyUSA polls have McCain beating Obama in NV (5), in NM (5) and, just barely, in Wisconsin (10). That's a current dip down to 264 or 254 for Obama.

According to www.realclearpolitics.com, Clinton is beating McCain and Obama is losing to McCain in polls in Ohio (20) and Florida (27). So Clinton could lose CO, IA, NV, NM, and WI, and still have 285.

[John Warren Gotsch]

The key to the front door is Puerto Rico's primary on June 1. If Obama wins it then his extraordinary campaign team has learned how to bring in the lion's share of Hispanics and win the national campaign in a potential blowout. There is nothing that McCain can do to counter the Tsumami of African Americans, upscale whites, younth, Hispanics and Latinos,and the progressive core of the Democrat Party.
The future is Obama's; McCain goes no where with "old politics' and Bush's muddle-headedness. Just maybe this sets the political divide deep into the 21st Century. Maybe we turn Crawford, Texas into a petting zoo for children; of what was and is no more!

[Gma11]

He's got some excellent Hispanic leaders supporting him now. I suspect many Hispanics will continue to support the Clintons (it's almost always THE Clintons, not just Hillary) during the remaining primaries. But Obama will attract the majority in the fall.

[ntmessage]

Obama has repulsed Latinos and they have voted for Republicans in the past. It is pretty cut and dried. Obama played the race card, got 90% of the Black vote, but lost Reagan Democrats and Latinos by doing so.

All the slight of hand posts that try to sneak the Latino vote in as the same as the black vote is kind of sleazy rhetoric. Reagan Dems and Latinos have voted for the other side. This is a glaring weakness with Obama that makes him the weaker of the two against McCain.

[ntmessage]

Well, thank you for proving the point that Obama is less electable than Clinton against McCain. You present the most blatantly optimistic and improbable model and Obama only gets to 274, barely squeaking by. If you use the same thinking for Clinton, she gets way over 300. That is were the landslide would be, with Clinton not Obama. And this is with Obama at a high point after NC. No one credible has Obama taking NV and that would put him at 269. He is anywhere from unelectable to barely electable against McCain. He also puts MI, PA and NJ in PLAY. The only state that he really flips today is CO, yet he runs weak in states that he needs.

Clinton runs far more strongly than Obama. A vote for Obama will mean a vote for McBush.

[TrueIndy08]

McCain if for the Iraq BS... and he voted against the Webb GI Bill...

Thats enough for this military family to NEVER EVER vote for his hypocritical a$$!!!

[BLinCincinnati]

You definately won't want to vote for him after watching this well made video of McCain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y395Tftgz0E

Scary stuff.

[JavaCityGal]

My father was a Korean war vet and McCain refusing to vote for the GI bill really ticks me off. i don't see how Repubs can question Obama's patriotism, they should be questioning McCains patriotism and anyone else who would vote for McCain.

[AnotherMike]

I like the sounds, even if they're overly optimistic, of this year being Obama's to lose. I will admit that even in cautious terms, Senator Obama's current national polling lead is a good sign, this far out from the general election.

But one thing that still sticks with me is the stomach-souring feeling of deception when it became clear that Diebold wasn't the fine, upstanding, every vote-counting company we thought them to be. If you need a point of reference- when Blackwater was good too... or at least we assumed we weren't paying billions of dollars to brutal mercenaries operating with unconditional impunity.

I thank HBO for beginning to re-air it's revealing documentary, "Hacking Democracy" http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/ . This look into the horrendous way SOME of our elections are conducted will give you the same chills all over again.

As a proud resident of Oregon and lucky participant of such, I encourage all of you to lobby your local and state governments to institute mail-in voting. This relatively low cost, (voters even pay postage) high-accountability way of voting eliminates the long lines, poor weather and scheduling conflicts that continue to suppress voter turnout in many areas; especially low-income areas, since now they're working harder and longer hours!

This is the beginning of a new era in politics. Let's make sure it begins with the most fundamental element of democracy- That not just every vote counts, but every person, equally.

[abby4ever]

***I like the sounds, even if they're overly optimistic, of this year being Obama's to lose.***
Yes. And excessive optimism is, in part, what destroyed Hillary's chances, or at least some think so. I've seen three different political websites, plus CNN, use the word 'inevitable' to describe Obama's apparent victory,, this in the last 48 hours. The latest political site that uses it, is Politico, they use it in thre headline of their lead article of today, one on West Virginia. If it becomes widesread--- the use of this word in connection with Obama--- it could backfire, just as it did with Hillary. The underdog always has a psychological pull with some voters.
I wish people would stop using 'inevitable', it always smacks of complacency---and arrogance.

[WWJD2]

Larry Sinclair, Donald Young, Obama--there's a stew ready to boil over.

[ChiGuy]

His campaign was predicted to be a dismal failure by most "experts" from the beginning, and look what has happened since.

Obama WILL redraw the map.

[vinny]

mccain is toast

[neocon43]

Lots of hot air with vinny.Never thought Florida would be so easy.With the sunshine state in the bag your Obama is really going to have to run the midwest states.Not going to happen.Prsident Mccain is on his way to Washington!

[swamijo]

hey nocon...you can join nuc*nt in the delusional wing of the Repugnant party...George W. McCain't doesn't have a snowballs chance in Texas of winning in November and all you Repukes know it...even your drug-addled Commander-in-Thief Rush Limbag knows that 'cause he's running scared and spewing his HillBilly nonsense continually...Obama will make McC*nt look like the hot-heade, PTSD inflicted, flip-floppin' mo-ron that he is, and Barry won't even have to break a sweat doing it!

[NikkiT]

LOL....all those blues....they'll be red with barak hussein obama at the helm.

maybe he'll win illinois, ny and calif - but that's probably it.

[KarenKaren]

Yeah, in a time when 80% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track and on the verge of becoming an also-ran country, they really want a symbolic image that the country is about to expire--McCain!

[KarenKaren]

I hope Childers wins in Mississipi tomorrow. That's more important than West Virginia to Republicans.

[KarenKaren]

Well, I think his last name is Childers. It's an important race for House of Reps in Miss (I think). They've already had two Republican slots fall to Democrats: Foster in Illinois and Cayasoux in LA. Tomorrow, if the third falls to a Dem, they're saying it's abysmal for Republicans. We'll see. But that'll be one election that is watched in addition to WV. This is a response for Noucant. That's a helluva slogan to run on by the way: No You Can't. Good luck with that.

[JackND]

If I wasn't sure that Barack Obama would win in November before, Bob Barr's imminent entry into the race seals the deal.

Even Newt Gingrich sees the writing on the wall.

[Sparklez]

right

He is gonna take away those repub votes from McSane

I love it

Now Nader needs to do something with himself

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Prove it.

[eej]

Obama has already begun to redraw the map, with huge turnouts and millions of newly registered voters. Young people are expected to vote in numbers representing their share of the population for the first time. Some red states are likely to go blue this November.

Hillary was not able to do all that. I mean she has her strengths, but someone with more ability to inspire people came along.

[neocon43]

AS ARE RED STATES TO GO BLUE

[Youth4Obama]

A new page in American History is on the wayyyyy!!!!!!!!

Hannity, O'reilly & Fox News will try to scare up votes but I'm sure most Americans will go Blue when they think of the last 8 years.

[williamg]

This is the most informative article you will ever read regarding the nuts and bolts of Obama's campaign - mainly information technology.

http://techpresident.personaldemocracy.com/blog/entry/22572/power_to_the_edge_obama_s_california_field_operation_from_the_future

[KarenKaren]

Thanks!

[williamg]

If you want to get a good view of how Obama will redraw the map, check out this page, and pay attention to pablano's page at fivethirtyeight.com.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/12/135827/153/346/514266