Part of Sun Tzu's rules for picking the right battles is knowing how to "divide" the ground. ("You can divide the ground and yet defend it." AOW 6:3:15) We get locked into seeing the ground as fixed and limited, but new ground is constantly being created by the way we divide it. ("Surprise is as infinite as the weather and land." AOW 5:2:5) For example, listening to the Sunday talk shows, the pundits don't seem to realize that Palin redivides the ground in a new way. No, she doesn't get the hard-core Hillary feminist who is pissed at Obama. Her appeal is to regular women, mothers who work aren't lawyers and angry. She appeals to groups of voters that are overlooked because they cut across normal political lines. She appeals to blue-collar, self-made, small town, union-members, small college, and small state people. Her nomination doesn't bring a state with her (other than Alaska), but it brings a lot of small groups that can provide the tipping point in many different states.