Wisconsin: Beginning of the end for Clinton?

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Wisconsin: Beginning of the end for Clinton?
Obama's victory -- yet another one -- in an important state primary suggests her coalition is beginning to come unstuck.
By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 19, 2008

With his victory in Wisconsin's Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, Barack Obama withstood an aggressive assault by rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and gained new momentum for their high-stakes battle ahead in Texas and Ohio.

Obama's win raised new doubts about the Clinton campaign's strategy of casting the Illinois senator as a candidate whose soaring rhetoric masks a lack of preparation for the presidency.

And it showed that Obama is continuing to make inroads into Clinton's coalition of women, the elderly, working-class white voters and other groups. And that, analysts say, spells potential danger for her in the March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas.

"Her coalition just is not holding," said Lawrence R. Jacobs, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. "This could be -- I wouldn't say her Waterloo, but maybe the battle before the Waterloo."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-analysis20feb20,0,5566117.story

[lapfog_1]

1. Middle of the end

Potomac primaries was the beginning... when the blowouts started.

17 point victories... as someone pointed out... Huckabee kept it closer to McCain in WI tonight (somebody said that, I didn't see the final numbers).

[Diane R]

6. Give Washington State some credit! (And Nebraska & Louisiana). We gave Barack 68%!

[lapfog_1]

7. Not trying to negate anything that happened before

But in this streak of nine, soon to be ten, victories... Obama really pulled away from Hillary in percentage vote won, delegates, and in consistent margin of victory with the Potomac states... That's when people started saying out loud that "it's over" "Hillary is on the ropes" etc. Maybe before then... also, these were states where the pundits and pollsters seem to think that Hillary would keep it close... just like Wisconsin. Only it didn't happen.

But hey, I'm not wedded to the idea, if you want Washington or Nebraska to be the "beginning of the beginning of the end"... that's fine by me :)

[gateley]

2. Going into this election, I believed the general consensus that Hillary had

the best political machine in place for this race.

What confounds me, is they've made some missteps (serious ones, as evidenced by the primary results), yet continue to do the exact same thing over and over again.

If her group was that savvy, wouldn't you think they would try another tactic? It's like they're shooting themselves in the foot. Feet?

[jimlup]

3. We will now see how the Clinton machine reacts

I don't think it is going to be pretty. Unless she is wise enough to realize it is really over and her most graceful move is to stop the negative stuff and unite as a party to beat the repuks in November.

[sjdnb]

4. Wishful thinking ....

It's gonna get ugly and all because we decide our elections not on substance (JE, Gore, Biden, Kucinich, et al) but on popularity, $$s, celebrity, and the M$M.

[ingac70]

5. Just like most elections...

the more "popular" folks come out on top.

I'm sure Obama will use sound judgment when choosing a cabinet. That will show his substance.

[mikekohr]

8. It Began Long Before Iowa

It is clear now that the Clinton camp made massive miscalculations from the very beginning of this campaign. While they raised record amounts of money, they spent record amounts of money on non productive, non substantive expenditures (ex. nearly $100,000.00 on food platters for campaign workers, staffers staying in high-end hotels, etc.) that left them limping out of Iowa after finishing third.

As a bystander in neighboring Illinois I was alarmed at some of the reports coming out of Iowa with regards to how the Clinton campaign was being run. One report that made all of our local television channels was about the "trashing," of a Clinton, Iowa, office building by staffers of the Clinton campaign

http://www.democratictalkradio.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=1&TID=12753&SID=

While I was able to rationalize (not excuse), how such a thing may have occurred in the confusion to quickly get to New Hampshire, I was flummoxed as to why the Clinton camp decided to low-ball the repair/clean-up bill by $250.00 and let this event fester into $1,000,000.00 of bad press. It's clear now. They were either running on financial fumes or on the ether of ham fisted managerial incompetence.

Bringing on Maggie Williams was overdue, but too little too late.

mike kohr