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Annie Kani of Daily KOS:
“Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, more than any candidate in a generation,” said Jeff Berman, a paid consultant to her campaign.
Revealing a level of confidence Clinton’s inner circle has been eager to squash for weeks, outside advisers have now identified victories in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire as the path of least resistance, delivering for the Democratic nominee more than the 270 electoral votes needed to take the White House. And they are projecting increased confidence about her chances in Republican-leaning North Carolina, a state that could prove as critical as Ohio or Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania-New Hampshire optimism isn’t just about her overall polling leads in these two states, it’s about demographic fundamentals. In the latest Monmouth University poll, for instance, Clinton reportedly led Trump with college-educated whites by 10 points and tied him for the support of white women, a group that favored Romney by 9 points in 2012.
Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sees 269 electoral votes for Clinton “guaranteed,” which includes Pennsylvania, but he really believes she’s “sitting at 347.”
Clinton allies see an East Coast path, for instance, which would guarantee 317 electoral votes by picking up New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida; a wholly separate Latino strategy that would put her at 295 electoral votes just with victories in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico; and a path through the Rust Belt that would focus on Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa and put her at 293 electoral votes without North Carolina, Georgia, Florida or Nevada.
The only challenge with all these options is deciding where exactly to put your money in order to maximize results, even with Clinton’s massive August fundraising haul of $143 million.
