If nothing else, the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 have shown us that merely increasing the turnout of our base Democratic vote is not enough. With three conservative voters for every two liberals, the sheer arithmetic truth is that in a polarized electorate effectively mobilized by both major parties, Democratic candidates must capture upwards of 60 percent of the moderate vote. A candidate that cannot win south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Mississippi is only destined to repeat the heartbreaking losses of the recent presidential elections.
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