For Clinton, Bid Hinges on Texas and Ohio

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: For Clinton, Bid Hinges on Texas and Ohio
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: February 12, 2008

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers increasingly believe that, after a series of losses, she has been boxed into a must-win position in the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4, and she has begun reassuring anxious donors and superdelegates that the nomination is not slipping away from her, aides said on Monday.

Mrs. Clinton held a buck-up-the-troops conference call on Monday with donors, superdelegates and other supporters; several said afterward that she had sounded tired and a little down, but determined about Ohio and Texas. They also said that they had not been especially soothed, and that they believed she might be on a losing streak that could jeopardize her competitiveness in those states.

“She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one superdelegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view.

Several Clinton superdelegates, whose votes could help decide the nomination, said Monday that they were wavering in the face of Mr. Obama’s momentum after victories in Washington State, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine last weekend. Some said that they, like the hundreds of uncommitted superdelegates still at stake, might ultimately “go with the flow,” in the words of one, and support the candidate who appears to show the most strength in the primaries to come....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/politics/12clinton.html?hp

[JCMach1]

1. Hillary is a realist... it's the only way she can take the nomination at this point

[Sulawesi]

2. Of course, you heard it here first...

Ohio and Texas

[bigdarryl]

3. sounds like the Rudy strategy

[samrock]

4. I disagree

I think it hinges on Wisconsin.. There is a 2 week gap between Wisconsin and Texas/Ohio.. If by that time Obama has swept every primary since Super Tuesday he will probably pass Hillary in both Texas and Ohio .. he will become an unstoppable tidal wave.. Hillary MUST go all out to win Wisconsin.. ANY win would be nice, but a 5%+ win would stop Obamas momentum long enough to allow Clinton wins in Texas/Ohio to reverse it.. But I do not think Hillary can win Wisconsin any more, espically after todays Potomic sweeps.. ( she would have to hold Obama to under 55% in both MD and VA to make any kind of claim of the race tighen up.. and actually she would probaly have to win 1.. which seems very unlikely)...