Obama Charts a New Route to Re-election

nytimes.com ^ | 9-29-11 | JACKIE CALMES and MARK LANDLER

[Justaham]

With his support among blue-collar white voters far weaker than among white-collar independents, President Obama is charting an alternative course to re-election should he be unable to win Ohio and other industrial states traditionally essential to Democratic presidential victories.

Without conceding ground anywhere, Mr. Obama is fighting hard for Southern and Rocky Mountain states he won in 2008, and some he did not, in calculating how to assemble the necessary 270 electoral votes. He is seeking to prove that those victories on formerly Republican turf were not flukes but the start of a trend that will make Democrats competitive there for years.

“There are a lot of ways for us to get to 270, and it’s not just the traditional map,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist. “That’s why we’re laying the groundwork across the country to compete on the widest possible playing field next year.”

While Mr. Obama’s approval ratings have slid across the board as unemployment remains high, what buoys Democrats are the changing demographics of formerly Republican states like Colorado, where Democrats won a close Senate race in 2010, as well as Virginia and North Carolina.

[Lazamataz]

When you are COMPLETELY delusional, like these writers, shouldn't you be confined for your safety, and the safety of others?

Oh, sorry, that was Racist.

[Maceman]

Obama Charts a New Route to Re-election

It's called "LOSING."

[digger48]

I gess he figures he can lose 49 little states, if he can just hang on to the other 8 big ones.

[Adder]

Zero, you are NOT getting NC again.

Go peddle your crap elsewhere.

[GonzoGOP]

If Obama can't win Pennsylvania and Ohio it is over. There is just no place else he can pick up that many electoral votes. If he is up against Romney he might pick up Virginia and NC, but he would also pick up Ohio and Pennsylvania. I just don't see scenario in which Obama gets pummeled so badly that even Philadelphia Fraud can't bail him out, where he is going to win anyplace else.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Chart the path...
1. Hate whitey
2. Hate anybody who accomplished anything
3. Hate the “rich” ie, anybody making over ~200k per year (now called “millionaires and billionaires”)
4. Incite hatred among minorities
5. Excoriate people for not paying their “fair share” when they already pay hugely disproportionate taxes for their numbers and share of income
6. Set up straw man arguments about a “do nothing” Congress”

That about sums it up.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Zero should take his campaign to some Socialist hell hole to see if they buy his wannabe dictator BS.

[frankenMonkey]

Make book on this. The messiah will not take Colorado. Period.
He’s lost the middle here. The anger is palpable, just below the surface.
And the liberals are putting ‘gay marriage’ on the ballot, generating even greater motivation against the lefties.
He’s toast here.

[ken21]

lol!

[Nat Turner]

LOL ole Dave needs to do more PASSING than puffing, in the puff-puff-pass drill. If they can't hold NY-9, they will definitely NOT hold NC or IN much-less FLA!!! That is why the Cain straw poll victory has the political classes collective nickers in a knot...I once read recently, that no president has ever been re-elected with unemployment over 7.3% except FDR...

Also we would need at 400K real jobs being created each month and EVERY month until the 2012 election sans that...we could nominate a drunken monkey and he would beat Obama for that reason alone...

[liberty_lvr]

You all better start warming up to the concept that, barring a full blown dead-child-in-his-bed scandal, Hussein will win in 2012.

He might give back several of the purple states from 2008 but the Dems have reliably locked up the electoral vote in the 8 largest states that have been solidly and reliably blue since '92 - that's 242 electoral votes right there, 90% of what he needs without even lifting a finger.

It ain't about being popular, we all know he is wildly UN-popular, it's about who gets 270.

[Phlap]

The latest nationwide New York Times/CBS News poll this month showed that 51 percent of independents with household incomes below $50,000 disapproved of Mr. Obama’s performance, as did 57 percent of those with incomes of $50,000 to $100,000. But independents with household incomes above $100,000 approved of his job performance by 50 percent to 43 percent.

This is good news that you poll 50% of the smallest portion of a demographic? lol

[Staff Of Moses]

NY and CA looking to be in play , just to hold these the democrats are going to have to spend a fortune leaving little money for anywhere else. Unless ofcourse Obama does not run and Hillary is the candidate. The “I Told You So” campaign will be hard to beat.

[DarthVader]

He should chart a route to the unemployment line. The gravy train is over for this lazy ingrate.

[teg_76]

I wish I could be as confident as you. After losing that 2010 Senate Race, it’s hard to be. Was Buck a bad candidate?

[big bad easter bunny]

Free baloney sandwich anyone?

[Night Hides Not]

But independents with household incomes above $100,000 approved of his job performance by 50 percent to 43 percent.

In Texas, these folks are called Democrats.

I crack up reading the comments by "independents" in Politico. They parrot the WH talking points.

[Iron Munro]

Mr. Obama is fighting hard for Southern and Rocky Mountain states

[GonzoGOP]

Dems have reliably locked up the electoral vote in the 8 largest states that have been solidly and reliably blue since '92 - that's 242 electoral votes right there, 90% of what he needs without even lifting a finger.

Yep, but that other 10% is a real bitch. Note that as you point out they have had those locked up since 1992. We have won half the elections since then, so it is hardly a predictor. Go pick up the electoral map and DO THE MATH. Go to http://www.270towin.com. Start out with the 2008 results. Flip Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia. No way he is getting any of those this time. He still wins if he picks hold on to Florida, Ohio and PA. But the article is talking about winning if he drops those states. The only way to do that is to hold Virgina and North Carolina and there no scenario he does that if he drops PA. Any blowout so bad that he Drops PA is going to take all the South with it.