Hillary Clinton's announcement Sunday that she is finally entering the presidential race means that she is not only the inevitable front-runner for the Democratic nomination, but that she has a very good chance of actually becoming the first female President.
That is because of her advantage when it comes to the electoral college. Since 1992 when her husband was first elected to the presidency, 18 states and the District of Columbia have voted for the Democratic nominee for President in each consecutive election. These states plus D.C. now have a total of 242 electoral votes-just 28 votes shy of winning The White House.
The "Blue Wall" includes California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), Hawaii (4) , Illinois (20), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (11), Michigan (16), Minnesota (10), New Jersey (14), New York (29), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (20), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (12), and Wisconsin (10).
New Mexico narrowly went for Al Gore in 2000 and for George W. Bush in 2004, yet in the last Presidential election the state and it's 5 electoral votes were uncontested and ended up being won by Obama by 10 points, putting it firmly in the Democratic column and giving Hillary a base of 247 electoral votes. A recent poll from September shows her leading Jeb Bush there by 14 points.
The midwestern states of Michigan and Pennsylvania used to be considered battleground states yet Obama won both last time around without even campaigning in either one. The state the GOP might have a shot at breaking the blue wall is Wisconsin, but it's highly doubtful since Obama won the state by 7 points despite the fact that native son Paul Ryan was on the GOP ticket.
This doesn't necessarily guarantee Hillary will win the presidency, but it does give her a substantial edge over the GOP-nominee-in-waiting, who would have a base of 191 electoral votes. For example, the GOP nominee would have to win either Ohio or Florida to win the election, yet Hillary could conceivably win without winning either of them, as long as she held Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire from the last election.
The odds are supposed to be very much against any Democrat being able to win the White House next year. Since World War II, only once has the party in power been able to extend their control beyond two terms (in 1988, when Vice-President George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan). But given the electoral college edge Hillary has, the odds against her don't seem so bad.
