Reply #6: We may not need to win them [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

We need to be competitive in them so that Bush doesn't get to "mail in" his campaigning there. Gore was perceived to be competitive in a number of southern States, especially the ones that Clinton/Gore won in 1996. Bush poured a lot of his time and resources into a number of those Southern states to deprive Gore of them. If the Republicans can take those states for granted next time, they get to redirect all their resources Northward. A number of the States that Gore did win in 2000 were real squeakers. A few more visits by Bush to them might have swung them into his camp.