The Kerry States: New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin
The strategy starts with holding the 251 electoral votes that John Kerry won in 2004; of those states, four are currently on Obama's battleground list. Even though McCain has been leaning hard in Pennsylvania, Plouffe noted, the polls currently show Obama with a five to 10 point advantage. What's more, the Democrats have gained 316,000 new registrations since January, while the Republicans have lost 60,000. The result, says Plouffe, is that "in a state where we already have a demographic advantage, where our base vote is higher than McCain's, he's going to have to win a massive amount of the swing vote to have a chance." He's less confident, however, about Michigan, which was off-limits to Obama during the primaries. "Obama is less formed in Michigan as a campaign and as individual," he says, "so we've had to play catch-up." That's why Obama held his two biggest endorsement rallies--John Edwards and Al Gore--in the Great Lakes State. Asked whether selecting Mitt Romney as his running mate could help McCain clinch it, Plouffe was ready with a red-meat retort. "Presumably the reason to pick Romney would be to help on the economy," he said. "But boy, that would be the greatest job-killing machine in the history of American politics. Mitt Romney is an expert on Cayman Island tax shelters. You couldn't have a more out-of-touch ticket."

The Tipping Points: Ohio and Florida
One major benefit of Obama's expanded battlefield, according to Plouffe, is that "there are a lot of scenarios where we don't need" Ohio and Florida to win the election. Still, Team Obama is "pouring everything we can into those states." The reason? because "if we win Ohio or Florida, I don't think John McCain has any chance to win the presidency," he said. Regarding Ohio, he confessed that "it's close now, it'll be close in September and it'll be close in October." Surprisingly, Plouffe seemed more "bullish" about Florida--a state that many Republicans have said belongs to McCain. Asked why, he pointed to the the 900,000 voters under 40 and the 600,00 African-Americans who were registered but didn't vote in 2004--as well as a combined total of more than a million unregistered voters in both demographic groups. "The places where you have the highest number of base voters are the places you have the best chance of winning," he said. "We think there's going to be slightly more than 10 million people voting in Florida. Our base, we think, is more than 5 million. You gotta like that. Now, I'm not saying we're going to turn everyone out. But it lessens the amount of the swing vote you have to get."

The Targets: Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, New Mexico, Iowa
Confident that Obama will win two of 2004's closest red states, Plouffe noted that his boss is polling outside the margin of error in New Mexico and Iowa. "They're the most likely to flip," he said. Virginia, Colorado and North Carolina will be trickier. Plouffe is buoyed by the recent influx of young professionals to the suburbs of Northern Virginia, but admitted that registering new residents is tricky and said that Obama can win without them provided he turns out the youth and black votes. "We're not just trying to increase turnout," he said. "We're trying to get the highest percentage of African-Americans to vote in our electoral history, and the highest percentage of voters under 30." Claiming Obama has a "slim lead," Plouffe plans to target voters who say they're supporting former governor Mark Warner's Senate run but still aren't sure about Obama. "Warner gives us a clear sense of who's available," he said. Meanwhile, Plouffe was confident that Obama can catch up in North Carolina, where he trails by a few points--again thanks to black voters and young whites. As for Colorado, Plouffe pointed to last night event's at Invesco stadium, where each of the 60,000 additional attendees--25,000 of who hail from the Centennial State--agreed to serve as neighborhood captains or volunteers in exchange for a seat. "While the Republicans criticize, we choose to organize," he said. "McCain's going to have a very, very hard time winning in November if he can't win here."