Reply #60: If our objective is to target states like TN,

[Telly Savalas]

then we should ditch all the current prospective candidates and try to woo people like Sam Brownback into the party.

If the implication is that such solidly red states won't vote for Obama solely on the basis of his skin color, then such states should be ignored in our electoral strategy. There are plenty of electoral votes without them, so there's no reason to pander to the KKK.

The red states we should be hoping to flip are ones where we lost by less than 10 percentage points in 2004, and there are plenty of these. In such places, Obama has at worst an above average ability to expand our base of appeal.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that we should abandon places like TN. We should pour resources into such places to grow the party and try to advance a progressive agenda. However, we should not be choosing a candidate to appeal solely to the most conservative elements of this country. Moreover a party which chooses its candidate on the basis of his/her skin color is morally bankrupt and completely undeserving of anyone's support.