Florida and Michigan

[mwhittington]

And others (like me) don't care either way. Both of them will do a bad job, so why worry about it?

Ain't that the truth!?

[Monroe]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_ ... inton_lost is an interesting read that disects her campaign.

[Teaos]

To sum up her campaign: She screwed up.

[Mikey]

The bottom line, in hindsight, is: Obama's people were sharper concerning the technical aspects of electioneering. He won enough in losing causes to minimize the losses, and captialized where he could.

[Monroe]

Its a lot harder to stop a movement than a person. I think that's why he won. Character assassination just wouldn't work against him.

[Tsukiyumi]

Its a lot harder to stop a movement than a person. I think that's why he won. Character assassination just wouldn't work against him.

Especially since everything brought up was irrelevant to his policies and ability to be a great president.

[Teaos]

Especially since most of the thing brought against him were not his fault but the people around him.

[sunnyside]

The trick now is that he has to sucessfully shift gears and realize that he doesn't need to campaign for Democrats. He needs to reach out to the independents and the swing voters, even the moderate republicans. He needs to communicate clearly directly to these people while under fire from Republicans and from his own base that seems to feel once you leave the urban centers of the coasts its only weirdos and freaks and may resent him trying to focus on them.

He needs to never let it out of his mind that the Democrats lost it in 2004 when people thought it was a slam dunk.

[Teaos]

he doesn't need to campaign for Democrats.

But he does. A lot might shift to McCain over him.

[sunnyside]

he doesn't need to campaign for Democrats.

But he does. A lot might shift to McCain over him.

Hmmm first I'll conveniently define "swing voters" to include the Reagan Democrat demographic. Other demographics that are statistically sliding republican could fit in there too. I think Jews fit the latter.

But I don't think he's at risk with the party core.

[Duskofdead]

Especially since most of the thing brought against him were not his fault but the people around him.

Considering far more lunatic, hatemongering reverends who don't even need to be taken and cropped out of context supporting other candidates weren't run on marathon for 7 weeks 24/7 on Fox or major news networks, yeah, it seems they were able to dig up very little against Obama himself.

[Teaos]

But since the dems arent exactly miles ahead of McCain he cant afford to lose any. And since McCain is more moderate than a lot of republicans he can grab his fair share of swing voters as well.

[Mikey]

Anecdotally, I'm hearing a lot of that. Securing the party is definitely a focus for Obama.

[Teaos]

And while he is securing the party McCain can work on the swing voters.

[Mikey]

And while he is securing the party McCain can work on the swing voters.

You make it sound easy, but it's not - many of those "swing" voters are people who are normally unintentioned to vote at all; and those tend to vote Democrat IF they get out at all.