Hillary Clinton's campaign continues to dominate the storylines since their March 4 victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and (sort of) Texas. First there was the “Clinton-Obama ticket" meme, followed quickly by the “Ferraro Flap.” These narratives drowned out some of Barack Obama's positive, back-on-the-winning-track storylines from Wyoming and Mississippi.
Now there's The Great General Election Electability Debate. On this morning's regular media call, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe talked about how Obama’s showing in places like Colorado, Virginia and (forthcoming, presumably) North Carolina. Later this morning the Obama campaign released a detailed memo signed by Obama supporters from Obama-won states: Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, which makes the case for why Obama is stronger in key swing states, including (but not limited to) their own. And then, for good measure, at noon Team Obama held another media call featuring four of those statewide Democrats (sans Kaine) to reiterate the idea that Obama is more electable in November in their states and will help, rather than hurt, Democrats downballot. (FWIW, the other three are good ... but damn was Sen. McCaskill strong as hell on this call.)
This is a good pushback by the Obama team, but they continue to be on the defense since March 4. How much longer before they go on the offensive? Plouffe briefly touched on Hillary's high negatives, but there is no concerted effort to put the Clinton team on the defensive on this or other matters.
--Tom Schaller
