The Clinton strategy for the general may also be what she is doing now. She assumes California and New York and the bulk of the bluest of blue states, and targets Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Michigan. THAT is the core of her strategy. It is a modification of an old strategy that used to assume Florida was important, too, but in the general Hillary doesn't care about Florida if she can get those four key states.

The problem with that is it ignores all the lessons, as you point out, of the 50 state strategy. We have such a good chance to make gains in states like Alaska and Kentucky and maybe even Texas, and abandoning them to the Republicans would be just stupid. Obama is the maturation of the Howard Dean 50 state strategy. Truth is, Obama is no more liberal than Hillary. But he recognizes the value of a more inclusive strategy and I think that is key.