Obama, Clinton campaigns assess Super Tuesday results
Each side underscores gains made, but the battle for delegates could stretch until the Democratic National Convention in late August.
Locked in a cliff-hanger race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the campaigns of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today offered dueling scenarios of how they can win.
One day after voting in 22 states on Super Tuesday left them almost in a dead heat, the two campaigns held consecutive conference calls to offer reporters their assessments of Tuesday's results.
David Plouffe, manager of Obama's campaign, said Clinton had "failed miserably" in her strategy of wrapping up the nomination on Super Tuesday. He noted that Obama won more states than Clinton -- 13 to eight, with New Mexico too close to call -- and also won more delegates, suggesting that that has been the pattern throughout the Democratic contest.
Just a week ago, heading out of South Carolina and into Super Tuesday, the Obama campaign told reporters that the day was all about the delegates and not about the states, that even if they won few or no states, they would rack up the delegates and that was the goal.
But Plouffe, downplaying expectations in upcoming contests, said the Obama camp thinks the Super Tuesday results show "a very strong movement in terms of growing this movement for change."
As for the Clinton camp, senior strategist Mark Penn said Clinton won strongly among people who made their voting decision on the very last day. He argued that Obama had increasingly run an "establishment" campaign based on big money and endorsements and crowed about Clinton winning Massachusetts in spite of the high-profile Kennedy endorsements for Obama.
Penn said he believed Clinton's strong showing across the country would also help them woo super-delegates who will see the results as evidence of her strength in a general election.
Even so, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson predicted a long, closely fought battle for delegates between Clinton and Obama that could possibly stretch to the convention in late August.
"It is likely that no side will gain an appreciable significant advantage in overall delegate counts between now and March 4 -- even past April," Wolfson said. "All those who wish for a battle that goes to the convention . . . you could be looking at such a contest here."
The Clinton advisors said they believed the next few primary battlegrounds -- such as Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, which vote next Tuesday -- play to Obama's strengths, but that Clinton will be in a stronger position when the voting moves to delegate-rich Texas and Ohio, which vote March 4.
janet.hook@latimes.com
mark.barabak@latimes.com
Times staff writer Johanna Neuman contributed to this report.
