Clinton campaign remains upbeat
She assures nervous donors that recent losses aren't fatal and predicts victories in Texas and Ohio.
WASHINGTON — Confronting a string of primary defeats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign scurried to reassure anxious donors Wednesday, and the candidate struck a more combative tone to ramp up pressure on Sen. Barack Obama heading into the next contests.
Clinton held a morning conference call with top donors, one day after she lost Democratic primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Her message, according to a person who took part in the call: The results were neither unexpected nor fatal, and the campaign will regroup on March 4 with victories in the delegate-heavy states of Texas and Ohio.
One campaign aide, speaking privately, said that a defeat in Texas or Ohio might be more than Clinton could withstand.
But Mark Penn, a Clinton pollster and top strategist, said it won't come to that. "From our perspective, we expect change to begin March 4," he said.
Should Clinton lose Tuesday in Hawaii and Wisconsin -- and aides concede that could happen -- she will have been beaten in 10 straight contests.
Her supporters are watching the streak with mounting unease.
"No one believed we would win every primary, but I don't think there are too many Clinton supporters who thought we would lose [so many] in a row," said U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who has traveled with the Clinton campaign.
Garry Shay, a Los Angeles attorney, is both a Clinton backer and a superdelegate to the Democratic convention. If neither Clinton nor Obama comes out of the primary season with a clear victory, Shay and nearly 800 other superdelegates could be in a position to pick the winner.
Shay said Wednesday that he might rethink his support if Obama enters the convention having racked up more delegates in state-by-state races.
"It's fair to say I'm concerned about it," he said. "Clearly, you can't go on losing primaries and think you're going to win the nomination."
Hoping to put Obama on the defensive, the Clinton campaign began airing an ad in Wisconsin that chides him for refusing to take part in a televised debate there. Clinton's campaign believes she outperforms Obama in these forums and is eager to schedule as many one-on-one debates as possible.
The 30-second spot is one of the most pointed Clinton has aired to date, though her campaign described it as "straightforward." It says of Obama: "Maybe he'd prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions."
