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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Is Clinton writing off Wisconsin?


"Thank you, Wisconsin. Good night. There will be no encore."
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has scaled back her Wisconsin campaign schedule by a full day, and is now planning to leave the state after Monday morning instead of Tuesday morning.

There are two ways to read ths. Either she doesn't think she can win/gain anymore in Wisconsin, or she's coming down here to try and focus on Texas.

The answer is probably a balance between the two.

She only arrived in Wisconsin today.

Later, and definitely related, Obama added a day to his Wisconsin campaign. (Last paragraph.)

(Hillary Clinton waves to the audience following her speech to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's annual Founder's Day dinner in Milwaukee, February 16, 2008. (REUTERS/Allen Fredrickson))

4 Comments:

  • The Clinton campaign seems to be all over the place lately. There's an air of chaos about it. Not weakness, per se, but confusion. As if their game plan stop at 5 Feb and now their just improvising.

    It's almost like seeing a cornered bull in the ring. Lashing out everywhere, but with no particular plan other than breaking free.

    March 4 is a loooong way away, in political terms. This should let the Clinton team get back on top of their game. Of course, Barack "Momentum" Obama also has the opportunity (and funds?) to press his air and ground game. And all the little talking head 14 days and 24 hours in each one of them to fill with... well, something... and it's gotta sell.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:29 PM  

  • It seems curious for her to give up on Wisconsin when the polls (I think...) show her relatively close. It would be a nice win for her and would put a brake on Obama's momentum... those talking heads would have something to talk about besides how miraculous and quasi-godlike Obama is.

    So it does seem like maybe she's worried about Texas.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:28 AM  

  • EPM, if you believe the reports, they didn't have a post Feb 5 plan.

    TG, I've been wondering about that for awhile. The polls I see are around Obama +4-5. It's a very short window, but that would not seem unwinnable, and it's notlike the Wisconsin demographics break against them.

    And, to whatever degree, she is worried about Texas. Her entire thing is staked on winning Ohio and Texas and of the two, Texas is the closer one. She's definitely winning right now, but it's the closer of the two (and we don't know what their internal polling shows about direction.)

    Basically, She has to win and Texas is the closer one so, almost definitionally she's worried.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:44 AM  

  • Later: I think the deal breaker for Clinton in Wisconsin is that it's open primaries with same day registration so indepndents and Republicans can vote if they change to Dem.

    (And we don't know what the internal Clinton polling shows.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:36 AM  

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