ABC News: Clinton downplays wisconsin and focuses on big states

[heyholetsgogrant]

ABC News reports that the Clinton campaign is downplaying expectations for tomorrow's Wisconsin primary:

The Clinton campaign downplayed expectations for Wisconsin today, arguing its focus is winning the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas that vote March 4.

"I do not subscribe to the momentum theory of American politics," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson told reporters on another conference call, which was held at the same time Plouffe was talking up reporters covering the Obama campaign.

"We feel very good about Ohio and Texas, which are the next big contests that vote after Wisconsin and Hawaii," Wolfson said.

Source: ABC News

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/18/hillary-clinton-barack-o_n_87215.html

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Her campaign is so messed up, Obama I think can hit her on this. Your campaign should care about all states (ignoring half the country and not caring about the caucuses ) and all Americans not just the big states. Just goes to show she will do anything for power. No wonder half the country dislikes her.

-Grant

[Kilmer17]

free fall.

[Burgold]

Yup. I dislike the Rove, Rudy, H. Clinton strategy of winning by only going after the big states or the 51% you need. Sure, you need to allocate your time and assets, but you should never articulate that you think the X is irrelevant.

[Henry]

How many times is she going to pretend a state doesn't matter?

[JimmyConway]

This "strategy"/excuse will not work for Clinton like it worked for Bush.

Yup. I dislike the Rove, Rudy, H. Clinton strategy of winning by only going after the big states or the 51% you need. Sure, you need to allocate your time and assets, but you should never articulate that you think the X is irrelevant.

You're right, the Clinton team made a big mistake in doing so. It's a bold strategy and IMO isn't going to pay off.

[chiefhogskin48]

I have a bad feeling she will win Wisconsin. And then all hell will break loose. She's managed expectations to expect defeat, but this is not like the others states she lost last week. It is a lot more like Ohio than people think.

[Ford]

I have a bad feeling she will win Wisconsin. And then all hell will break loose. She's managed expectations to expect defeat, but this is not like the others states she lost last week. It is a lot more like Ohio than people think.

It's a complicated state with a very strong progressive movement on one end that is embodied by Russ Feingold, and a large contingent of working class blue dog Dems on the other side. You hit the nail on the head with the expectations game she is playing. It's not because she doesn't believe she can win Wisconsin. If that was the case she wouldn't be pouring money into the state running what are essentially cheap attack ads. They are trying to make it seem as though Obama is the inevitable winner there so a loss is downplayed and a close loss or victory can be spun as a new wave of momentum for Hillary going into Texas and Ohio.

I still think Obama will win (albeit by a somewhat modest margin), but Wisconsin is a very difficult state to predict. In 2004, just before Super Tuesday, all the momentum was with Kerry and he was expected to win Wisconsin convincingly. They were expecting to call the race as soon as the polls closed. Kerry barely eeked out a victory over Edwards, and it took them several hours to predict a winner.