In Motion

There seemed to be some attempt by Hillary Clinton's campaign to win the news cycle with more dismissiveness,

Of his wife's recent travails, [Bill Clinton] said, "the caucuses aren't good for her. They disproportionately favor upper-income voters who, who, don't really need a president but feel like they need a change."

and assumptiveness.

In a sign that the spin war over the significance of super-delegates is underway in earnest, Harold Ickes told assorted Hillary supporters on a private conference call yesterday that the campaign wants them to start referring to super-delegates as "automatic delegates," according to someone on the call.

Can she stop the increasingly Titanic-style leakage? The all-too public shouting match ignited by Chief Strategist Mark Penn? His hundreds of thousands of dollars earned for consulting to the same nuclear power plant her campaign is criticism for Obama not being hard enough on? His "insult 40 states" strategy?

There's The New York Times, the same editorial staff that endorsed her two weeks ago, inveighing on her to please release her full income tax returns before the nomination is decided, not after as she has supposedly promised. And asking that her husband publicize who's contributed to his charity -- and his Presidential Library. All that stuff that's undermining her vetted," "no new surprises" claim.

And is she either secretly or telepathically coordinating her Obama attacks with John McCain?

Somehow all of her old schoolyard actions seem to be reinvigorating Obama's image as underdog fighting against all odds rather than undercutting him at his first fragile moment of front-runner status. By not admitting he's the front-runner and instead clinging ferociously to her original "inevitably coronation" strategy, she's earning him new converts and helping bring out his vote.

Don't believe me? How about those "automatic delegates," the ones she'd previously gotten to commit to her:

"This is America. I have freedom of speech and freedom of choice and I'm free to change my vote. I don't have to answer to anyone except God and my conscience," said Christine "Roz" Samuels as she switched her SuperDelegate vote from Clinton to Obama.

Asked if she had heard from the Clintons before or since she made her SuperDelegate switchover, Samuels said, "I haven't heard from the Clintons and to be truthful, I guess I'm not that important to them. I'm only one of 13 SuperDelegates in New Jersey and I'm following my heart."

Or previously Clinton-committed Civil Rights legend, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA):

“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”

Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate, he could not go against the wishes of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.

Or the blue-collar unions who her campaign touts as her bedrock support:

Giving Senator Barack Obama new momentum, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers, endorsed him on Thursday. Another giant, the Service Employees International Union, was on the brink of backing him.

Or Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign manager:

David Wilhelm, who led the campaign and later became chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Obama had the unique ability to encourage cooperation as a 65-percent president after the divisive years of a 51-percent majority.

This is not even to mention former Agriculture Commissioner for the state of Texas and populist hero Jim Hightower on the left, or former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) in the middle, or senior campaign adviser to both Presidente Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Mark McKinnon on the right -- all endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for President.

And now the press the Obama campaign is creating:

With Ohio's March 4th primary looming as the possible make-it-or-break it battleground for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama has landed his campaign A-Team three weeks ahead of the Buckeye State's D-Day.

It's all about the 50-state strategy, something I'm a firm believer has to happen for Democrats to win, a theory Democratic Chairman Howard Dean put into effective action in the last Congressional election.

Oh, and the Obama campaign can respond within 24-hours to an attack ad: