Clinton Campaigns as if Momentum Is Hers

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Political Memo
Clinton Campaigns as if Momentum Is Hers
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: March 3, 2008

AKRON, Ohio — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton does not look like a candidate who might drop out of the presidential race as early as Wednesday.

In a weekend dash of campaigning in Texas and Ohio before those states vote on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton was in happy-warrior mode — and seemed to have found a stride. Her attack lines were punchier, her audiences were reacting more enthusiastically than usual, and she clearly liked her latest line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, on his lack of experience with a crisis. If many of her advisers are worried and even gloomy about her prospects on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton appears charged up (to the point where her voice is increasingly hoarse). She is talking to reporters and joking around more, not less, and she has been taking time to show good cheer on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend and on “The Daily Show” on Monday.

And yet: Mr. Obama has won the last 11 contests and, despite her attacks, still enjoys a front-runner’s momentum. He raised more than $50 million in February, while she raised $32 million. He has been peeling off some of her superdelegates — who are party leaders and elected officials — and now enjoys an overall delegate lead of 1,303.5 to her 1,212, according to a projection by The New York Times. Clinton advisers view both Ohio and Texas as must-win contests in order to catch up with Mr. Obama in the delegate hunt and persuade superdelegates and donors that her candidacy is viable. Public polls in Texas show a virtual dead heat, if not a slight lead for Mr. Obama, while Mrs. Clinton has been holding onto a small lead in Ohio.

The Clinton camp has been steadily managing expectations. First it said she needed to win both states by comfortable, if not overwhelming, margins; then former President Bill Clinton said that she needed to win both states to stay in the race, without commenting on the margin; and now her advisers are suggesting that an Ohio victory, on top of her $32 million in fund-raising, could give her an argument against dropping out. Mrs. Clinton herself has privately told advisers that she has a hard time imagining ending her campaign if she wins Ohio and narrowly loses Texas, given that she has money in the bank and that she believes she would have an edge in the next big vote, Pennsylvania on April 22, because its demographics are similar to Ohio’s.

At the same time, Mrs. Clinton believes there are new whiffs of momentum around her, advisers say. After being sidelined recently by attention on Mr. Obama and the leading Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, she drew coverage with her latest television commercial about Mr. Obama’s ability to handle a crisis, and has pivoted from that to portray herself as the more qualified Democrat on every count....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/us/politics/03clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[MethuenProgressive]

1. $32 Million = Momentum

And to think that I read on the Internet that nobody likes her...

[MaryCeleste]

2. As she should

If see took a different approach it would almost be the same as an admission of defeat.