By unfairly caricaturing David Miliband, a moderate, modernising social democrat, as a Blairite continuity candidate, his most vocal supporters hurt their own candidate in a way which ultimately proved decisive in a knife - edge electoral college.
The result of this cherry - picking is that democratic presidential candidates would have to win the popular vote by 6 percent or more (a landslide) in order to edge out republicans in the electoralcollege.