Hispanics went 67 percent to Obama [View All]

[Wetzelbill]

31 for McCain.

Blacks and American Indian voters went overwhelmingly to Obama. (both over 90 percent, I believe.) Women went for Obama.

Because of minority population growth key voting demographics and strategies for winning elections are evolving. The reason the map was so Blue outside of the Deep South is simple. There aren't enough older White Men to go around for the Republican Party. There aren't enough White Evangelicals either. There aren't enough exorbitantly wealthy and greedy Republican supporters anymore either. While Obama, Howard Dean and Dems around the country were looking to reach out and expand the party base, the Republicans were narrowing theirs as much as possible. McCain is a guy who has some accomplishments on his resume that might make him appealing to Hispanics and Indians, for example, but to get the nomination he had to turn his back on all of that. His past positions on tax cuts and the Fundamentalist Right may have made him attractive to some independents too, but he had to sell his soul, again, just to get the nomination.

Republicans have no viable base anymore. They can't govern and they don't appeal to minority groups or the working class, outside of religion and tapping into ignorance. They have no strategy at all to win the votes of women. Nothing.

If Dems play their cards right, and continue reaching out to all demographics, the 67 percent of Hispanics, for example, might get up to 80 percent. And as their population grows the Dems have solidified a massive voting bloc for decades to come.

Look at the faces of our party. To name a few of the people who ran for president, you had Obama, Hillary, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich.

Obama is a black male, Hillary a woman, Bill Richardson is Hispanic, and Biden, Edwards and Kucinich all come from diverse working class backgrounds in different parts of the country. Even Chris Dodd, the son of a senator, speaks Spanish and has a history of fighting for programs like Head Start that shows he's at least somewhat in touch with the needs of Americans.

The Republicans have little diversity at all, and they only appeal to a few groups. Before, their inability to seriously govern wasn't as obvious, and Obama can go a long way to beating back the notion that the far right has any answers to anything by having a successful presidency.

But right now, Dems have a golden opportunity to fix this country's problems and shore up enough key voting demographics that it would be tough for the Republicans to win the presidency or take control of either Houses of Congress for the next 20-30 years of so. Think back to 1968, in the last 40 years, Republicans have had the presidency for 28 of them. The Dems could go on a run like that if they continue to broaden their national appeal while the Republicans remain stuck playing to their ever radicalized and narrowing base.