Obama’s 50 State Strategy

WASHINGTON — If everything goes according to the campaign’s plan, Barack Obama should win all of the states John Kerry carried in 2004, plus a few that haven’t been seriously challenged by a Democratic candidate in years. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe dissected the electoral map in front of about 80 reporters yesterday at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, explaining the multiple routes to victory the campaign has plotted in its race for the presidency against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. “We are going to have a lot of states in play,” Plouffe said. “And we have a lot of different paths to get 270 [electoral votes].”
There are 18 states the Obama campaign views as “battleground states,” totaling 199 electoral votes. Four are states Kerry won — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan — while the remaining Bush states are ones the campaign feels are winnable if certain things fall into place.

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