President Barack Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina broke down the president’s paths to victory next year in a new video tied to an end-of-year fundraising pitch.
In the video out today, Messina makes the point that the campaign’s financial strength will help determine in how many states the president can compete. He offered five of the 40 different paths to 270 electoral votes the campaign has identified, in a similar outline to what he presented to reporters earlier this month. The final path includes Arizona — the only state the campaign is targeting that it didn’t win in 2008.
“Our entire goal here is to put as many of these maps in play as possible,” Messina said as he went through the charts. “And at the end it’s just a financial decision. Do we have enough money to register the voters we need in Arizona? Can we start putting more neighborhood team organizers on the ground in North Carolina?”
“It’s all about whether or not we have the resources to do this,” he continued. “People have speculated this is a billion-dollar campaign. That’s bull[bleeped].”
The five paths all start with the baseline of states that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) won in 2004, totaling 246 votes. The West Path would get Obama to 272 votes and includes winning Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Iowa; winning only Florida would total 275 votes; winning North Carolina and Virginia takes Obama to 274 votes; and winning Ohio and Iowa gets him to exactly 270.
The Expansion Path, totaling 272 votes, includes Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia.
“We ought to have new ways to 270 electoral votes,” Messina said. “That includes winning states that weren’t pathways in 2008. And one of the best examples of that is Arizona.”
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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