Strategic Vision: Clinton +20 in PA

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Obama can downplay Pennsylvania by just saying to look at the big picture instead of any particular state. He'll still have a large lead in overall delegates. After Hillary wins Pennsylvania it'll just be a few days of positive news media for her and then everyone will look toward NC and IN. And "momentum" has largely been nonexistant this election, if Hillary can survive 11 straight landslides and then still go on to do well on March 4 Obama can certainly survive one loss.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Sure, political junkies know that she's looking at like a 75 delegate gap at best at the end of the day, but do the folks?

Probably not, but most of them have already voted and the superdelegates will know.

It's also something the media will have to mention, even if it's just somewhere in the second paragraph of the front page article.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Obama can't win Pennsylvania. It's just one of the states that Clinton is favored in. He should downplay it and focus chiefly on winning Indiana and North Carolina two weeks later.

Solid strategy, downplaying the state that is actually going to matter in the general, in favor of those that aren't.

I've never understood this argument.  We have two options to use as a guideline for General performance:

1. A closed Democratic primary, where Clinton leads
2. Polls specific to the General Election, where Obama performs modestly better.

Why so readily #1 over #2?

Because it benefits Hillary, duh. Honestly I had never even heard the "primary performance = general election performance" argument until this election, basically because it's a creation of Hillary's campaign?

Obama can't win Pennsylvania. It's just one of the states that Clinton is favored in. He should downplay it and focus chiefly on winning Indiana and North Carolina two weeks later.

It will be a really interesting test of Obama's campaign's skills. Shoud they ignore Pennsylvania, lose really badly and spin it away? Or contest it and risk still losing by a large margin? It'll be interesting to see whether he can escape intact from it. They kind of botched Texas and Ohio, imo.

Escape "intact"?

You act as if a loss in Pennsylvania can forever destroy his campaign. It's just one state, he still has the massive delegate lead and still will after Pennsylvania, and one loss is going to be nothing compared to what Hillary went through in February after Super Tuesday.