also Obama was the perfect storm of a candidate to win, he had strong Black appeal and brought out tons of blacks who weren't inclined to vote to come out in both the primary cycle and general election (how he held off the GOP in the midwest swing states in 08 and especially '12), had strong appeal to many moderate White voters, other non white groups, was probably the most popular candidate with women ever, ran very smart campaigns with an excellent get out to vote campaign (GOTV), surrounded himself with solid advisers who he largely listened to and was an excellent speaker and very personable, all those are yet to be openly seen in Harris (who also is largely rationalized, Cali Dems have trouble getting out the West Coast) Obama was really a perfect storm that the party was lucky to gain, McCain could have beaten Hillary in 08 in my mind.