Clock Ticking as Clinton Struggles to Rewrite Script

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Clock Ticking as Clinton Struggles to Rewrite Script
Dan Balz


Where does the Clinton playbook lead now? (Reuters).

....Obama's freight train for change has overrun the Clinton campaign. Top officials inside her campaign and alarmed allies outside are braced for a defeat on Tuesday. Five days is not enough, they have argued, to slow and reverse the momentum Obama has developed since Iowa....Others close to the New York senator said she has been clear-eyed about the challenge since arriving here early Friday -- and determined to turn things around. But there is far less confidence in the team around her right now. Her loyalists describe a campaign that failed to provide Clinton with a new core message or focus before that arrival Friday....

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No matter what happens here Tuesday, one thing is notable: The Clintons are not quitters. The scandals and troubles that hit Bill Clinton 16 years ago this month would have felled an ordinary politician, but he refused to give up. She may be every bit as tough and determined as he. So the question is: What next? Clinton hopes to buy time after New Hampshire -- time for the weary and beleaguered candidate to catch her breath and get a good night's sleep - but the assault on Obama will be underway by then. The Clinton team hopes that with more time, they can shift the focus to Obama in a way that will force voters in later states to take a second and harder look at him.

Clinton wants this campaign to continue as a competitive contest at least through Feb. 5, when the big states come into play. But the comeback is built on a series of assumptions, some of which could prove as faulty as the "Where is the bounce?" memo. Her advisers believe their first lifeline is Nevada, where pre-Iowa and pre-New Hampshire polls showed her with a big lead. But that's a dubious assumption based on the history of this and past campaigns. Her New Hampshire firewall began to crumble even before Iowa. What's to say Nevada will be any more impregnable? If Obama wins in New Hampshire, he will have the inside track on the endorsement from the Culinary Workers union, who could play a significant role in a caucus process that is brand new to Nevada voters. Her next stop must be South Carolina, the first primary state on the Democratic calendar where African Americans will play a significant role. The Clintons have a long and strong relationship with black voters, but she will have a struggle on her hands against the first viable African American presidential candidate. The historical significance of a Clinton-Obama showdown in South Carolina cannot be overstated.

Clinton also faces mutiny inside her labor support. Over the weekend, there was a rebellion inside the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees over the union's negative radio ads and direct mail aimed at Obama. A group of state leaders accused AFSCME President Gerald McEntee of putting dishonest ads on the air and of violating a pledge not to attack the other candidates but simply to promote Clinton's candidacy. The Clinton campaign also hopes to build another firewall among superdelegates -- the party officials who have automatic status and a vote at the national convention next summer. But some of them are resisting pleas for endorsements. They say Clinton must win this with the voters, not with the party establishment.

Finally their strategy includes subtle and direct pressure on the media to take a harder look at Obama. The Illinois senator, they believe, is getting a free ride from the press, while Clinton is picked apart for everything....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/07/post_265.html?hpid=topnews