Petrified, the pundit came before the Sphinx ("Father of Fear") and was asked, "Who runs races in which no one wins?"
"Democrats?"
I don't even believe the Ohio projections, right now.
Update:
I suspect that Pennsylvania is "in play", not in Clinton's pocket.
Puerto Rico can get pretty hot in June, right?
Are voters in Michigan feeling more like Ohio or more like Wisconsin?
Is Texas in play for the Democrats: Markos: "If Latinos voted at the level of the rest of the state in Texas, it would be a 55-45 Democratic state."
THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN PA
The worst thing team Obama could do is rush into the state, maybe, with exactly the same formula(s). They have time for a lot of options.
First, if they can pre-empt Hillary locking up the State's machinery, in some way, that would be a sound first step - someone to call Rendel and get him to declare himself "neutral".
Barack cannot "go negative" with a kitchen sink. It's probably not in him to do.
Hillary may try her upstate NY strategy on Western PA. Barack has to match her. That means a LOT of retail politics.
However, he needs to keep raising the bar on Hillary, outside of her Iraq vote. She continues to try to have "healthcare" as a signature issue. She's trying hard to get National Security similarly in her column - he has to stop that, fast, with money and (a) a clear message alternative, (b) doubts about Clinton in the WH as CIC, and (c) something he can do better than she can on National Security. Meanwhile, she is going to keep on trying to win hearts on her economic stance.
HARSH, WITHOUT BEING UNFAIR, OR "DIRTY"
His campaign can be harsh here, because it is true that the Clinton have gotten a lot more wealthy than Obama in sticking up for workers ("If everyone else can file their tax return by April, so can Hillary"). There are some other touchy issues he can use. He can find the wedge between Bill and Hillary. If I can be convinced that I'm not getting Bill along with Hillary, then others can be too.
Hillary has taken up a lot of the Obama message, to the point that she ridiculously said something last night about "doing what is right, even when it is hard", which seemed to me like a direct Obama steal. That's understandable, it's what you do, when you want to confuse voters from whom they heard something first. Someone will eventually juxtapose her copy-cat phrases with the Obama originals, and it can look like a devastating copycat critique.
Last, Hillary is certainly not a phoney, but she is vulnerable, still, on her perceived authenticity and her ability to "connect" to voters. ("She is going to get lost answering every phone in the WH, including the phones from the lobbyists who finance her campaigns, and forget about or compromise on the issues of ordinary people, like NAFTA." and "The loudest phones we can imagine ringing in the Clinton White House are from the lobbyists who she accepts and who finance her campaign.")
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Wrap-Up
