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.
Well, if he handles it badly enough it could. I don't think it will come to that though. It's true that he has a huge delegate lead. If he can handle the situation the nomination remains his to lose. I still think Obama is the clera favourite to be the nominee. But Pennsylvania remains a big obstacle. It's an important test because if he can escape intact from Pennsylvania he probably has the nomination wrapped up.
