Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Managing Wisconsin Primary Expectations

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.

Sam Stein reports that the Obama campaign also downplayed expectations on a conference call with reporters.

The Obama campaign took concrete steps to lower expectations for their candidate in tomorrow's primary in Wisconsin.

On a conference call with reporters, campaign manager David Plouffe stated on several occasions that the Badger State represented friendly turf to Sen. Hillary Clinton. Obama's objective, he added, was to merely maintain his delegate lead: roughly 138 pledge delegates.

READ UPDATES ON TOMORROW'S WISCONSIN PRIMARY.

Comments

[georgeforchange]

01:20 AM on 02/19/2008

I'm really troubled by the sway given to superdelegates to choose the Democratic Parties Nominee. Among these superdelegates are 405 members of the Democratic National Committee.
According to Politico.com
http://www.politico.com/superdelegates/
Of the 405 members of the DNC a majority of the members that have endorsed a candidate have endorsed Hillary:

HRC OB Uncommitted
142 76.5 186.5

Two hundred members of the DNC are apportioned among the states based on population and generally elected either on the ballot by primary voters or
BY THE STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMITTEE
and not elected by democratic voters.
66 of the superdelegates endorsing HRC may have been chosen by a state democratic party committee and they have no obligation to support the choice of the voters.

[gallo146]

09:24 PM on 02/18/2008

why the tv media refused to offer this poll today?
february 18, 2008 obama 50% clinton 43%

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Wisconsin_Release_021808.pdf

[flasher3838]

07:49 AM on 02/19/2008

maybe cause the last wisconsin poll showed clinton ahead. dont see that in the media do you

[Lostskeleton]

01:23 PM on 02/19/2008

Polls don't matter. They are all over the place. Same with Texas. This is a dead heat going into WI and Texas. I find it funny that Clinton supporters are touting the American Research Poll that has always had Clinton ahead. American Reasearch also has Obama up by 8 in Texas. Plus, American Research has a habit of getting it wrong this season. From WI on out...you can't trust the polls. Hill and O are tied and are fighting it out in statistical dead heats until June.

[darlamc]

03:30 PM on 02/19/2008

no- but you will see this tonight...
www.politicalamnesia.blogspot.com

[vsign]

07:42 PM on 02/18/2008

Words are important! Obama is so weak, his followers have to carry him. He's their savior, so they don't mind.

Well - The Democratic Party can't afford "to carry" Obama. He can never beat McCain, not even as a democrat. We've got to drop him FAST!

Stand on your own feet Obama. Speak your own words.

[kevenseven]

08:06 PM on 02/18/2008

Go soak your head.

[KidMeNot]

08:20 PM on 02/18/2008

Read the polls...Obama does better head to head against McCain. He's a strong candidate who can deliver his message. Why should he apologize for being able to communicate to policies? Stop tearing down Obama, you're only helping McCain.

[etc]

08:29 PM on 02/18/2008

Read polls, read polls, what are you a republican strategist?

[Dendroica]

07:14 PM on 02/18/2008

Didn't know exactly where to write this, so I figured this sort of belonged here.

I live in an ethnically mixed part of Yonkers, NY. Part white, part black and Hispanic, and historically Irish and Italian.

It is raining, we're too lazy to cook, so we order Pizza. I go to the store, they've got local political news on the TV. There's three employees behind the counter. A Hispanic gentleman that's all work, a young arrogant white punk who's standing doing nothing, and the proprietor, a white woman who runs non-stop. The lazy bastard starts ranting after the latest NY poll showing Hillary or Obama killing McCain in NY.

He doesn't like it.

"It's either a woman, or a Muslim."

"We gotta fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here!" (Really, no shit, I'm not making this up.)

"It is important that people don't make that mistake, don't believe the lies, repeat the nonsense."

The proprietor starts to blush, and says that he's an idiot. Then he asks her who she'll go for, and she says Hillary.

This pisses him off once again.

This is America, my friends, This is the liberal northeast (although this neighborhood does have a Republican mayor- Westchester county is turning from heavily Republican to Democratic) and this dude was young enough to be my kid. Old enough to vote, old enough to be an asshole.

The only reason we get idiots to lead us, is because we can be at times, a nation of idiots. Obama's a "jigaboo" to this guy, Hillary's someone that we can't control, because we can't "give her a blowjob".

Then in the back of my mind I hear Frank Zappa's immortal words from "Trouble Coming Every Day":

"You know people, I'm not black but there's a whole lot of times I wish I could say I wasn't white."

"He's a Christian" someone shouts out, and I suddenly notice that its me doing the shouting.

[Dendroica]

07:16 PM on 02/18/2008

Sorry, touchpad screwed up. The last line should have been immediately after the "fight them over here." Sorry, killed a great story.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

06:49 PM on 02/18/2008

According to talkingpointsmemo.com Obama leads in all Wisconsin polls, by as many as 13:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/polls_obama_holds_small_edge_i.php

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

06:51 PM on 02/18/2008

And McCain would beat Hillary 47 to 42 in Minnesota, whereas Obama would carry it 53 to 38.

[AnninCA]

07:56 PM on 02/18/2008

Good grief, you're still following polls?

LOL*

[mcnairbo]

06:46 PM on 02/18/2008

So what if it dies. Good Riddance! Goebbels didn't last forever either but both had a good run.

[MartinEdwinAndersen]

06:44 PM on 02/18/2008

When Hillary Clinton used a ghostwriter for her book "It Takes a Village" she did not credit her anywhere in the volume.

Maybe Hillary's next book should be "It takes a Thief."


Martin Edwin Andersen

[partyofone]

06:52 PM on 02/18/2008

Whenever she criticizes there is a subtext:

Clinton. Rocks. Glass Houses.

[TiffShelton]

07:09 PM on 02/18/2008

She should have someone ghostwrite her tax returns.

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

06:33 PM on 02/18/2008

Elaine: This was my idea you stole my idea.

Mr. Lippman: Elaine these ideas are all in the air. They're in the air.

Elaine: Well if that air is comming out of this face then it is my air and my idea.

Mr. Lippman: You want a muffin or not?

Elaine: Peach.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

06:39 PM on 02/18/2008

What's happening to Hillary also happened to Morty S. when he was running for President at Del Boca Vista and bribed everyone with "Willard" tip calculators.

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

06:42 PM on 02/18/2008

that was a good one. i liked when he gave the nixon like wave as he left del boca vista in disgrace getting into the cadillac.

[Coyote2]

06:32 PM on 02/18/2008

Oh oh....Huffy is acting weird again.

Huffington post has been deteriorating over the last while. I think Arianna is not making any money and some of her best people are leaving the ship.

Folks, if you enjoy your time here, please help Arianna by clicking on the advertising. You don't need to read it or even allow it to fully load, just click on it. Arianna needs all the clicks she can get.

The alternative is that this great experiment in American communication and democracy will die.

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

06:43 PM on 02/18/2008

ariana is multi-millionaire she can just 'loan' her website 5 mil like hillary and all is well.

[darlamc]

03:33 PM on 02/19/2008

or be like Obama and accept donations from the Carlyle Group.http://politicalamnesia.blogspot.com/2008/02/carlyle-group-spreads-their-love-to-one.html

[DBo]

06:27 PM on 02/18/2008

Speaking of lowered expectations, I'm very concerned about the campaign's practically non-existent Hawaii outreach. Why are we/they so certain/confident that state is a shoe-in? Hillary lost Illinois, her birth state. And, traditionally, Hawaii is not a state particularly friendly to African Americans. Plus, given the plethora of Asian islanders, and the outcome of Cali, this worries me. Chelsea's been there all week - touting her mom and the Clinton *brand*. I haven't seen a single poll reflecting what voters are thinking. What gives?

[Indyfromny]

06:33 PM on 02/18/2008

4 delegates?

[ConcernAmerican]

06:49 PM on 02/18/2008

I've lived in Hawaii for 4 months in Oahu, samoans don't like African-Americans, they also don't like haoles(whites) but their dislike for African-Americans is much worse.

As the people of Hawaii always say using hand signal "hang loose".

[kevenseven]

06:56 PM on 02/18/2008

We all know how much respect you have for your fellow racists.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

06:23 PM on 02/18/2008

This plagiarism story is the most ridiculous thing since Al Gore's "earth tones." Why doesn't the media nail Obama for his Energy Bill vote or taking money from employees of Exelon? Instead abcnews.com and cbsnews.com are focusing on this non-story.

If it causes Hillary to win Wisconsin, I will weep (and my tears won't even help me win New Hampshire).

[FiddleDD2]

06:25 PM on 02/18/2008

This explains it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html?nav=hcmodule

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

06:22 PM on 02/18/2008

liberalism the ideology of plagrism. biden, obama, kearns-goodwin and barnicle.

[Indyfromny]

06:27 PM on 02/18/2008

Its better than having Dicks hand up your ass telling the POTUS what his policies are.

[FiddleDD2]

06:32 PM on 02/18/2008

is that called plagar-ass? Or ventrilo-ass?

[cheneyhasawarmachine]

06:33 PM on 02/18/2008

not that there is anything wrong with that

[Coyote2]

06:18 PM on 02/18/2008

Huffy has been screwy for months with this problem. About half way down blogs with lots of pages, all posts jump to next page, while the last half of the page remains and is copied from one page to next. This means that Huffy reporting 20 pages of responses is actually only 10 pages, as the bottom of each page is often a copy of what is the bottom half of the first page.

:O

ANYTHING ABOVE THIS POST (search below) WILL GO TO FOLLOWING PAGES:

:O

:O

PixieThis (See profile | I'm a fan of PixieThis)How many voices do you hear echoing around in the empty space between your ears?

[Beelzebul]

06:15 PM on 02/18/2008

I've been a regular on HuffPo since August of oh five. This blog has always been a mess, but instead of becoming a smaller IT mess, its become a bigger IT mess with the passage of time.

[JohnKemp]

06:23 PM on 02/18/2008

The HuffPo is like everything else; needs to get more competent conservatives & less scatter-brained libs running its IT department.

[FiddleDD2]

06:27 PM on 02/18/2008

Forget about being Cisco certified...just be a good party member and all will be well. Please goosestep to your next IT staff meeting.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

06:12 PM on 02/18/2008

Since Larry C. Johnson, who is apparently on Hillary's Smear Obama Task Force, probably won't allow my response on his scurrilous little compilation of innuendo, I'll place it here, just for the record:

Hey Larry, I realize that you're a genius and a maven amongst political thinkers, but you've probably been too busy with your new task force, searching far and wide for the slightest bit of possible dirt on Obama, to have much time to ponder the following questions:

How is Hillary going to attack McCain and his party for their criminal prosecution of an illegal war, when she went out of her way to enable them at every step of the way, and when they can use her lie about the Levin Amendment against her, to prove either gross incompetence, or a very strong desire indeed to back the war?

How is Hillary going to bring up the corrupt behavior of McCain and his S&L buddy Keating, or the general corruption of the Republican Part's exploitation of the war, when only just now she has come forward with a "health plan" that is but an unfunded mandate to force people to buy crappy coverage from her largest donors?

How is Hillary going to convince blue collar workers that she cares even a little bit about them, when she supported NAFTA and now pretends she didn't while still refusing to condemn it, claiming instead that it was "just improperly implemented"?

Come to think of it, perhaps you're not such a political genius after all, are you?