Hillary: I'm not retiring, I'll be back on the "fast track" in a "little while"

[Mr.Phips]

12+ years of a Democratic White House? I'm OK with this.

Are you also OK with Democrats blowing the fourth redistricting cycle in a row by losing the crucial 2018 midterms?  Democrats have been hosed in redistricting in three straight cycles now(1991, 2001, and 2011).  This ties the GOP string of getting hosed in 1961, 1971, and 1981.  Isnt it about time Democrats finally win a redistricting cycle again?

[Mr.Phips]

Shouldn't it be 2020 that matters for redistricting? By your logic since 2008 was a Dem sweep we won the last redistricting cycle

Most statewide offices are decided in 2018 IIRC.

Exactly. 

[Mr.Phips]

Most statewide offices may be decided in 2018, but the legislatures are not immune from whatever happens in 2020. Incumbent governors tend to win reelection though. Only Ehrlich went down in 2006 and Strickland and Culver in 2010. If a Democratic candidate wins in 2016. there's nothing to say that the first midterm will necessarily be disastrous like it was with Clinton or Obama.

There are many state legislatures that were drawn by Republicans to be unwinnable for Democrats, while a state itself cant be gerrymandered.  Even if 2020 is a huge Dem wave, the Ohio legislature isnt flipping, so having a Dem governor elected in 2018 would allow them to be there in 2021 to veto a GOP gerrymander and force fair maps.  Same is the case in Pennsylvania and Michigan.  Democrats getting fair maps in those states alone would probably net them 12 or more House seats.