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What Is Obama Doing In Texas?

First Read reports that the Obama campaign may try to organize in Texas:

A few states to keep an eye on THIS year when it comes to the Obama campaign: AZ, GA, and TX. All three are long shots, but all three showed significant population gains for minorities in the last 10 years. And the campaign is going to attempt to at least experiment with organizing in these three states to see if any of them are worth truly battling for when the calendar turns from 2011 to 2012.

It's not impossible for Obama to win Texas. It is impossible that Texas could make the difference between winning and losing the electoral college. The only scenarios where Obama wins Texas -- rapidly accelerating growth plus a disastrous Republican nominee, like Sarah Palin -- are scenarios where he's win easily without Texas.

So why is he possibly organizing there?

1. The growth of the Latino population will eventually put Texas into play, and Obama believes organizing there in 2012 will hasten that day, and believes it may be worth diverting resources from his reelection to accomplish that long-term goal.

2. They're trying to bluff Republicans into spending money there, which would be a stupid strategy. (The idea is, you waste money in the hope that your opponent will follow suit.)

3. They believe presidential organizing could have spillover effects into House races.