January 11, 2005
IMPERIAL PARTY:
A Democratic Elixir (Charlie Cook, Jan. 11, 2005, National Journal)
As Democrats prepare to select a new party chairman next month, they should think not only about what went wrong in 2004 but about what went right. After all, a party that carried 19 states in four consecutive elections (with a total of 248 electoral votes, just 22 short of the 270 needed to win) is not fundamentally broken, it just needs some work.
Well, okay, if you don't think ceding 30 states and their 60 senators to the GOP is a fundamental problem then the Democrats are nearly healthy. Of course, should they periodically figure out how to win a 20th state and elect a Democratic president who'll have to do the bidding of a Republican Congress that seems a more than acceptable worst-case scenario for the GOP. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 11, 2005 12:27 PM
Comments
Cook's analysis is flawed. The largest Democratic state, if it went to the GOP, would reduce the Democratic Electoral total to below 200. And with MN and WI heading that way, the numbers are already going the wrong way, without CA (given a strong GOP candidate).
Plus, how likely is it that NH will go blue in 2008?
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 11, 2005 1:46 PM