At the presidential level, Democrats haven't won more than 50 percent of the vote since 1976, and they have won more than 50.1 percent of the vote just once (1964) since 1944.
Get that? In the last 64 years and 16 presidential elections, Democrats have won more than 50.1 percent of the vote just once. Woeful.
Obama aims to change that.
Never will a campaign predict a landslide, but if only, say, half of the assumptions that guide Obama's general election strategy are true, his campaign is, in essence, preparing for a landslide in the popular vote. There's no way that 10,000 Obama volunteers in Texas won't influence his vote totals there even if he doesn't win.
If Obama can score, say, a 10-point victory in the popular vote (running up margins in states like Illinois, New York and California and losing Texas by narrower margins), it will have real-world implications not just to down-ballot races, but also to his agenda.