Can Barack Obama Win Without OH or FL?

So, you know how every year the Democrats rely on the same couple states full of liberal elitists that will always tip blue (well, unless the nominee is named something like Bondale or Mongale) and then hope like hell that Florida and Ohio just barely squeak out a victory for them or that a third party conservative makes a good enough showing so that they can slip in under the wire?

Well, some crazy people think that you don't have to do it that way. And one of those crazy people is Obama campaign manager David Plouffe…

…Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren't required for victory…

"You have a lot of ways to get to 270," Plouffe said. "Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th"…

Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida.

I don't know. This seems like a dangerous deviation from the Democratic tradition of consistent soul-murdering defeat. If Democrats start to win, they could acquire long-time power. And if they had power, they could grow spines. And if they had spines, they wouldn't really be Democrats, would they?

On the plus side, though, this strategy could open up a whole bunch of new states for Dems to lose in by a few votes. And that means lots more highly plausible, well-researched conspiracy theories.

Tags: Barack Obama, Florida, Georgia, John Kerry, John McCain, Ohio, Ross Perot, Virginia, Walter Mondale