On a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning, Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton’s communications director, was asked if within the Clinton camp there was any sense that the campaign needs to “retool or overhaul.” The answer: no. In fact, throughout the call, Wolfson and Mark Penn, Clinton’s chief strategist, showed no signs of any shifting. Instead, they signaled that the campaign’s gameplan is to continue to pound away at Obama. Wolfson pushed two points: Obama “lifted” portions of a speech from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Obama seems to be backing out of a promise to participate in the public campaign finance system (and thus live within a spending limit) in the general election. “He’s running on the power of his oratory and the strength of his promises,” Wolfson said. Yet, he asserted, Obama’s oratory is plagiarized and his promises are broken.
The problem: the Clinton campaign threw all this (and much more) at Obama before Wisconsin, and it didn’t stick. Perhaps Clinton and her aides believe they have to pump up the volume on the attacks to have a fighting chance in Ohio and Texas on March 4.
Why do they believe they can triumph in those states? Wolfson and Penn were asked. “Growing scrutiny,” Wolfson replied, is being paid to Obama–by the media, by the Republican Party, and by Senator John McCain, the likely GOP nominee. In other words, Obama’s due for a fall–eventually. And the Clinton people will do what they can to bring about such change before Ohio and Texas. Their strategy appears to be to help tear him down, rather than find a better way to lift her up. The race got nasty before Wisconsin–and it looks as if it’s going to get nastier.
