National GOTV this November

Hillary Clinton's campaign was always a swing-state 50+1 percent affair. She'd win in November, but by once again ignoring most of the country in favor of an elite few "purple" states.

Watching Obama build his incredible ground operation across the country, I can't help but hope that this newly built infrastructure stays in place through November.

We must build long term, in every state, toward a solid future progressive majority.

We can help downticket races, even in states where our presidential nominee won't likely win.

And we need to run up the popular vote.

On that last count, LBJ was the last Democrat to win his election by more than 50.1 percent of the vote. Bill Clinton never even broke 50 percent. So it's hard to argue you're a national party when we've been unable to notch a solid national presidential victory in 44 years.

So I want a presidential candidate who won't just fight for every electoral vote in the swing states, and who won't just create new swing states like Virginia, Colorado, Montana and -- can we dream? -- Texas.

I want a presidential candidate who will eat into GOP popular vote advantages everywhere, even in states like Idaho and Alabama, helping cut into the GOP's vote tally. We must mobilize Democrats everywhere, in every state in our nation, to deliver the most dominant Democratic margin of victory in half a century.

The media thought Bush's 3 percent victory in 2004 was a "mandate". Let's mobilize Democrats from show them what a real mandate looks like.

Let's aim for a double-digit 55-45 popular vote victory or better, with increased Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

It won't be a panacea for all that ails us. We'll still have to work to get better Democrats as well as more of them. But we'll be well on the way towards the progressive America we've been fighting for all these years.