Hillary Clinton vs. The 50-State Strategy

It's become almost a running joke how Sen. Clinton's campaign folks insist that the only 'significant' states are the ones-- coincidentally-- that Hillary has won or expects to win. But as their desperation increases, so too does this narrative grow. Defending the Clinton strategy of focusing on superdelegates, Joel Ferguson, co-chair of Clinton's Michigan campaign (a 'significant' state even though their delegates are not to be counted), said-

"Superdelegates are not second-class delegates," Ferguson said. "The real second-class delegates are the delegates that are picked in red-state caucuses that are never going to vote Democratic."

Sen. Clinton needs to officially refute this nonsense immediately, for the party's future.

After the Democrats' embarrassing loss in 2004 to the worst president ever, they realized a reevaluation was needed. With some resistance, they began one.

Despite opposition from party insiders, Howard Dean was elected Chairman of the Democratic Party in early 2005. The key focus of his leadership was his promise to employ a 50-State Strategy in rebuilding the party from the ground up. Via Wikipedia, Dean's vision-

The goal, the DNC says, is for the Democratic Party to be committed to winning elections at every level in every region of the country, with Democrats organized in every single voting precinct in the country...

...The 50-state strategy relies on the idea that building the Democratic Party is at once an incremental election by election process as well as a long-term vision in party building. Democrats cannot compete in counties in which they do not field candidates.

In short, the red-state/blue-state divide became a self-fulfilling prophecy. By 2004, Democrats had written off red states as unwinnable, and competed there only half-heartedly. Dean believed that when you ignore voters like this, they will ignore you. Poll after poll after poll over the years have shown most voters in line with the Democratic position on issues-- the economy, the war, the environment, choice, etc-- and yet they were swayed by a superior GOP message machine. Go to these states, Dean said, and make your case, and the votes will follow. The party insiders mocked this as naive.

The Democrats' huge victories in the '06 elections vindicated this strategy. We won the House (expected), but by a bigger margin than predicted. And we won the Senate, which was not expected. And in the Senate, two candidates who helped tip the scales-- Jon Tester in Montana, and Jim Webb in Virginia-- were candidates initially opposed by the old-school DLC for not fitting their mold.

Look at where Democrats stand now nationally in some 'red' states... Montana has a Democratic governor, and two Democratic Senators. Virginia has a Democratic governor, and after Mark Warner's surefire victory this year, will have two Dem Senators as well. Kansas-- the post-2004 symbol of how Democrats had lost the heartland-- has a Democratic governor who gave the response to the State of the Union. Numerous state legislatures, including in Kansas, flipped to Democratic control. We now have the majority of Governors, etc. This is a working strategy.

The big states that Sen. Clinton has won are states like California, New York, and Massachusetts. These are the states that Democrats, short of running Mike Gravel in the general election, are guaranteed to win no matter what. It's hardly a coup for November. Many of the states where Obama has won-- Colorado, Kansas, Virginia, Iowa-- are states that can, in theory, be won by a Democrat this time around (Ohio is ours this time, I believe, no matter what). They responded to Obama because he took them seriously. I wonder how they'll respond in a general election to a candidate who dismissed their state as irrelevant?

The short-sighted, arrogant win-at-all-costs attitude of these people is amazing. It's positively Rove-esque. If any of my readers live in Ohio, Texas, or Pennsylvania, I implore you to take this into consideration when the time comes to speak your voice this Spring.