NP: John Cage, 4'33"

FiveThirtyEight's Sean Quinn reports from Boulder on the lack of McCain outposts in heavily blue areas, and gets all metaphorical:

To be a professional poker player, one success principle you must learn is "Losing the Minimum." Everyone who plays seriously knows that players go through stretches where they can't catch a break and make a series of strong 2d-best hands that cost them money. It's structurally and statistically built in that you're supposed to lose certain hands. The most skilled players know how to keep their cool and lose the minimum on hands they are supposed to lose. More than figuring out how to profit when you get pocket aces or flop set over set in poker (because almost everyone knows how to win those hands), it's how to sense situational danger and avoid it that builds your bankroll in the long run. Your bankroll grows from the bets you save.

In the organizing world, Barack Obama's aggressive willingness to go into all corners of the state of Colorado (and Nevada, and New Mexico) is going to keep his losses to the minimum in areas he is supposed to lose. "Losing the minimum" is the mantra. And in Boulder, with McCain's field team abdicating the field, Obama can "extract the maximum" with no counterweight.

This makes me want to see the candidates play cards as much as I want to see them debate, since McCain is always portrayed as a guy who likes to gamble, and seems to hope a couple of big scores.