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I'd argue this is the most important factoid of the day:
In an unusual move, Obama’s campaign will also devote some resources to states it’s unlikely to win, with the goal of influencing specific local contests in places like Texas and Wyoming.“Texas is a great example where we might not be able to win the state, but we want to pay a lot of attention to it,” Hildebrand said. “It’s one of the most important redistricting opportunities in the country.”Over at the Megablog, Sam Boyd says, "This should be reassuring news for Democrats, not just because it has the potential to help them across the country, but because it shows that Obama cares about a lot more than being elected. If he's already looking at the size of his congressional majority in 2009 and 2010 (and after, given that he's also targeting state legislatures which will control the next round of redistricting) that reflects a deep desire to push for big changes that require a big majority in Congress."In November, the two most important questions for those interested in progressive change will be, in order, was a Democrat elected to the presidency? And if so, how big is his congressional majority? Generally, presidential candidates are so intensely focused on the first question, that they have neither the energy nor the resources to affect the answer to the second. Obama, however, is constructing a campaign strategy meant not only to win him the presidency, but build him a legislative majority and party infrastructure that will prove able to support his presidency. Could he fail? Of course. But if he succeeds, he'll have run a campaign that allows him to actually govern, rather than simply get elected. For now, the only piece of the puzzle missing is an effort to build a public constituency for discrete policy reforms. Boyd says Obama's actions reflect "a deep desire to push for big changes," but the question is, which ones? He should really pick one or two policies he wants to accomplish in the first 100 days, and run a campaign such that if he wins, legislators will understand that his election represents a mandate from the voters to do X. That requires a serious rhetorical focus on a couple of policies, but if he can pull it off, it will allow him to hit the ground running in November.
