| DNC chairman Gov. Howard Dean just held a conference call with bloggers. There were questions on Georgia, his future, Louisiana, but here's the info relevant to us. The 2nd caller asked about why Barack Obama underperformed in Appalachia and the inland South region, if it was due to a lack of his campaigning there or other reasons.
"The truth is we don't know why and until we dissect the exit polls we still won't know," Dean said. It took him 18 months to figure out the real problems in his own 2004 presidential campaign, he said.
"Clearly we'd love to do better in the Appalachia region," he said. "I don't know why we didn't do better in the Appalachia regions, but we'll figure it out."
The 50-state strategy will continue with the DNC. "The Obama campaign used a 50-state strategy to win this election. That will continue with the new chair."
He did not advise Obama who should be that person.
I asked if it was frustrating to have a state like West Virginia, where nearly every elected office is held by the Democrats, but we've lost the past three presidential elections.
"It's much better to be in a position like West Virginia," he said. "We've got a great Democratic governor and Democratic office holders [ there ]."
The Obama campaign made a strong comeback in the state and will have the momentum going forward in the future election cycles, Dean said.
"West Virginia is one of those states we can keep working at it and we can win it again," Dean said. "This is a generational shift going on in West Virginia. We just have to keep working at it. West Virginia is not the least bit frustrating for me. We didn't win, but we really closed the gap in the last couple of weeks." |
