Both campaigns agree that Obama has the edge in many of the states scheduled to vote in the next week -- Louisiana and Nebraska on Saturday, and Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Demographics in several of those states favor the man trying to become the first black president.
''There is one thing on this February night that we don't need the final results to know -- our time has come,'' Obama said after polls closed in California. ''Our time has come. Our movement is real, and change is coming to America.''
Obama has a significant fundraising advantage, having brought in more than twice her donations in January -- $32 million to $13.5 million. Clinton is trying to counter by challenging Obama to four debates this month in which she can try to draw distinctions. Plouffe wasn't taking the bait, calling it ''a tactic out of second-tier congressional campaign playbooks.''
''There's going to be more debates, but our schedule is not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign,'' he said.
Clinton chief strategist Mark Penn on Tuesday declined to discuss how strenuously Clinton would compete in the February contests, rather pointing reporters to an Ohio poll that showed her leading Obama by 20 percentage points there.
The Clinton campaign is also touting her strength in Texas which. like Ohio, holds its primary on March 4. Clinton strategists are even looking as far ahead as Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
Pennsylvania appeared to be making itself irrelevant by refusing to join the crush of states moving up their voting dates. Democratic Party rules said all but four states could not hold their contests until Feb. 5 or later -- and 22 rushed up to that first allowable day.
The result was that many of those Feb. 5 states did not get much attention from the candidates who had to divide their attentions. Heavy attention now will shift to the states that showed patience.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Campaign-Dems-Analysis.html?_r=1&oref=sloginObama has a huge advantage in Caucus states and in the demographics if the Potomac states.. He should win the rest of the month handedly and Clinton keeps the war chest in place. But Obama can tuck away serious delegates in the meantime plus momentum,. You would think that if Obama scores big the rest of February and gets 40% of the the OH Delegates that the Clintons would have to rely on really substantial wins in March which could be tricky.
They might also be relying on a lot of Super Delegates to come their way.... I am not sure that is going to happen. DNC members are reportedly pissed about her very public reversal on Florida and I understand (because I float around the Congressional aide Community here in Norther Virginia) That there are a clot of congressmen who are not happy at the prospect of Bill Clinton being tagged with the co-president label in the Fall.
Fascinating!!!
Date State Type District-level State Level
9-Feb-08 Louisiana primary 37 19
9-Feb-08 Nebraska caucus 16 8
9-Feb-08 U.S. Virgin Islands primary 3
9-Feb-08 Washington caucus 51 27
10-Feb-08 Maine caucus 16 8
12-Feb-08 District of Columbia primary 10 5
12-Feb-08 Maryland primary 46 24
12-Feb-08 Virginia primary 54 29
19-Feb-08 Hawaii caucus 13 7
19-Feb-08 Wisconsin primary 48 26The rest of February totals 291 1564-Mar-08 Ohio primary 92 49
4-Mar-08 Rhode Island primary 13 8
4-Mar-08 Texas Hybrid 126 67
4-Mar-08 Vermont primary 10 5
8-Mar-08 Wyoming caucus 7 5
11-Mar-08 Mississippi primary 22 11The March totals 270 145