coleridge78's Blog

Tried and True? Not so fast...


Even TPM isn't immune from received wisdom of course. Nobody is. But I would, honestly, expect something a little better than this:
As SurveyUSA found in a state-by-state electoral college breakdown back in March, Obama could pull it off, at least in theory. But it's not a tried and true path to the Presidency for a Democrat. That doesn't mean it can't happen. But it is a high stakes gamble, the kind that looks brilliant if it works and, well, probably pretty idiotic if it doesn't.

The idea that the "tried and true" Dem path to electoral victory is "pray for OH, FL, and PA" is simply false. Let's look at the history. We have only two Democratic victories in the past six elections (before that, the electoral map was completely different, so it's not a meaningful comparison; for example, CA voted GOP consistently with the exception of Johnson's annihilation of Goldwater). 
In 1992, Clinton won OH and PA, and lost FL. In 1996, he won all three. But what does this tell us? Not much, as it turns out. In both years, he could have lost all three of those states and still won the election, as long as Perot was still in (with 326 and 310 EVs in '92 and '96, respectively). 
If Perot wasn't around and we divide his votes 55-45 for Bush, which is being exceedingly generous to Clinton, Clinton loses the election even if he wins all three of those states, because he loses so much ground in the South, West, and "rust belt". 
What have we learned? OH/PA/FL has never been a "tried-and-true" path to Democratic victory, or defeat (Kerry and Gore could have won by turning any of a number of other single close states, or dozens of combinations of any two small, close states). This is 100% fantasy and TPM should take the lead in dispelling it, not encouraging it.

4 Comments

| Leave a comment

My response to the post was a shoulder-shrug and thinking "Yeah, that tried-and-true path has sure been working out well for us lately." Thanks for going into more detail than I would've in rebutting that logic.

There's another issue here. IMO, given the mood of the country, George McGovern could win this election with Michael Dukakis as his running mate. The real stakes are down-ticket. With the recent Rasmussen polls in KY, there are now TEN current Republican seats in which the Democratic candidate is either ahead or very close behind. Most of these ten states are states in which Obama does markedly better (KY is the one exception) than Clinton. I haven't checked, but I'd bet that if you looked at the House races you'd find much the same thing. So if your goal is not just to win the White House (even the Democrats will have a hard time screwing this up!) but to complete a broader sweep, you'd much rather have Obama at the top of the ticket than Clinton.

Absolutely true, and one of a number of reasons why the supers (some of whom are idiots, but *all* of whom are political animals who play the game together) were never about to chuck overboard whichever candidate won this thing by the agreed-upon rules. It's a bonus to them that it's Obama, who very likely has the longer coattails; but if it had been Clinton, they would not have overturned it to try to get at those coattails, because the ensuing outcry would be counterproductive.

Consider also the state legislative elections, many of which are held at the same time. An incumbent going into 2010 has significant advantages in the election that will determine who does redistricting after the 2010 census, drawing Congressional and state legislative districts for the next 10 year census cycle. This is a very important election, and Obama will without doubt have longer coattails than would Clinton.

And either over McCain, because there will likely be 2 or 3 SCOTUS nominations in the next 8 years.

Leave a comment

coleridge78

user-pic

Following:
Followers:

Posts
Comments & Recommends


Favorites

All Reader Posts
How to use myTPM

Advertise Liberally
Share
Close Social Web Email

"To" Email Address

Your Name

Your Email Address