Landslide in the Offing

We knew, from watching the primaries, that Barack Obama’s got this ground game thing down.

Now we know he can damn well afford to be on the ground anywhere. Obama is threatening John McCain’s chances in Indiana, Montana, Georgia, North Dakota, North Carolina and West Virginia, which is astounding.

But Obama has broken through with critical groups to completely shake up the map by turning the usual demographic assumptions on their head. He is running even with McCain among white women and Catholics and surging — in some polls besting McCain — with older voters, and now even white men. It is the makings, pollsters say, of a potential landslide.

Have you spent any time recently thinking about where Obama would be without the economic crisis, the Palin bubble bursting, without McCain running a bad campaign and behaving badly in the debates? In my column this week, I pondered this question. There is no question, in my mind, that President Bush is a drag on McCain’s chances at winning his party a third term in the White House. But there is also no question that McCain could have led on the bailout negotiations, loudly opposed at least the pork in the bill, picked a better vice presidential candidate and chosen to be reassuring instead of angry at the debates.

McCain has always been a lucky man, but Obama is very lucky McCain didn’t do any of those things.

DO AMERICANS WANT ONE-PARTY RULE IN WASHINGTON? Ask A.B. returns Monday, Oct. 27. Please join my weekly video Q & A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.