VoxOp
A NEW ELECTORAL MAP?
"A slew of political factors will determine Obama's success in turning red states blue. But the senator, in no small measure, will be aided in his task by reforms that preceded his run for the presidency. For all of the hoopla surrounding the candidates, the 2008 presidential election will be the first truly national test of the viability and prescience of Howard Dean's 50-state strategy . . . ."The party already has more than 200 field staffers on the ground, and grassroots training programs in all 50 states. . . . These might seem like ad-hoc measures. But if Senator John Kerry had received 10 additional votes per precinct in 2004, he would have won Iowa, Ohio, New Mexico, and, subsequently, the White House."
SAM STEIN, huffingtonpost.com
"The Obama camp says today it's mapping a 50-state strategy for the fall campaign. Really? I mean, I know they don't mean that. Is he really going to campaign in North Dakota? I've long felt that we could do without North Dakota."
MICHAEL
"Even if Obama doesn't have any realistic prospect of winning North Carolina or Montana, he certainly wants to win in places like Minnesota and Virginia, and parts of Minnesota are like Montana, parts of Virginia are like North Carolina, and an image as a broad-minded person who campaigns everywhere can be helpful. . . .
"Beyond that, the more places you campaign, the more places you're in a position to take advantage of unexpected good fortune. If for some reason McCain commits some kind of horrible gaffe that alienates the people of the big empty square states, it's good to have laid the groundwork to take advantage of that."
MATTHEW YGLESIAS, theatlantic.com
EARLY SUMMER SCORCHER
"98 degrees this afternoon. In early JUNE. Damn, global warming isn't kidding. . . ."The car is the most comfortable place when it's burning hot. It's so small that it cools off and then some. But with the price of gas topping $4, I'm not driving around recklessly just to cool off."
MARGALIT, outtamymindwithworry. blogspot.com
"All that CO2 from all those millions of miles run up by hundreds of thousands of commuters. All those times you should have taken the T. You always knew they'd come back to bite you in the butt, didn't you?"
COSMO.CATALANO, boston.redfin.com/blog
"Later, while I was outside grilling in my aunt's yard, there was another long horn burst when a pickup truck came to a complete stop on Porter Street (or, technically, Visconti Road). The driver of the pickup jumped out and went to the window of the stopped, beeping vehicle and started screaming that he had been cut off. He added, of course, a few curse words and the usual ignorant 'go back where you came from.'
"Are tempers flaring because of the heat, or have we lost any sense of public decorum?"
THE HUBSTER, thehubsterblog.blogspot.com
