Here is the article from politico:
Dem strategists see landslide in the making
I think some of the analysis by "Democratic strategist Paul Maslin" is a little off:
"The Obama campaign did a lot of important foundation work to expand the Democratic map. And I give them credit for that," Maslin said. "But the real expansion of the map is coming from an outside event, namely the economy, and not the tactics of the Obama campaign."
That is a really short-sighted perspective on these events. Obama's current powerful position is a result of the 50 state strategy--a strategy which put him in a position to be able to take advantage of things like this economic tsunami. If we were using the 'swing-state-only' strategy pursued by the democrats for decades, we would not be able to ride this wave.
Let's hear from "Bill Clinton’s former pollster Doug Schoen," who says:
"Obama has not changed the map," Schoen said. "The map has changed because, in light of the economic turmoil, "McCain has become an almost unacceptable alternative" to President Bush."
People in many of these states may not have thought of Obama as a real alternative to Bush (and Bush-style policy) if it wasn't for Obama's ground campaign.
This is a former Clintonite trying to defend the Clinton strategy of reactive marginalism. It's a shame to see the electoral map and conclude anything but that the 50 state strategy is clearly superior. Clinton may very well not have won if there wasn't a Perot sopping up the disaffected Republican-leaners. Many of those Republican-leaners did not see Clinton as an alternative to Bush I, regardless of the circumstances. They saw Perot as that alternative. Recall Clinton won with a plurality--and Kerry didn't win at all. (Ignoring Gore as a difficult case to analyze in this context.) And recall that Hilary Clinton did not win the primary against Obama's 50 state strategy and ground game.
To look at today's political climate and not attribute it to the 50 state strategy, I think, is nonsense.
(Here it is on reddit, if you want to see other people's views.)
Update: Hi, since it wasn't made clear here, none of these things were actually said by Bill Clinton, and I didn't mean to suggest they were. Just wanted to clarify.