Obama is the presumptive nominee; now what?
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Last night, Barack Obama officially won enough delegates to claim the title of the Democratic presumptive nominee. Hillary Clinton has, of course, argued that she won the popular vote. As of yet, she hasn’t stepped out of the race, and we’re not necessarily sure when she intends to.
So what happens now?
We get a break, of sorts, in the Democratic campaigning process. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some discussion behind closed doors, attempts to swing a few delegates one way or the other. But the campaigning isn’t over. I fully expect to see the Obama campaign start working on getting the votes together to win the general election — after all, McCain is already playing that game.
The Democratic convention takes place at the end of August. That’s far too long for Obama to wait to start his campaign, no matter what happens when he gets to Denver. I do have a few thoughts on what Obama’s general election will look like. In the primaries, Obama made a point of winning delegates rather than the popular vote. And as important as a public mandate may be to a president, we can all name at least one election in which one candidate won the popular vote and another won the electoral college. Electoral votes are really all that matter.
Obama won’t ignore any state, but I promise his campaign strategy is going to focus on going where he can pick up the most electoral votes. If he can’t pick up one of the big states, he’ll spend far less time in it than the handful of smaller states that can make up for it.
