Obama's Low Expectations

Voting is underway in the crucial Pennsylvania primary, but the Obama camp is already spinning the election outcome. In a memo to "Interested Parties," the Obama campaign writes:

There has been much speculation about what each campaign needs coming out of tonight. The facts, however, are simple.

Behind in delegates and sporting a 14-30 primary record (not good enough even to make the playoffs in the NBA Eastern Conference), the Clinton campaign needs a blowout victory in Pennsylvania to get any closer to winning the nomination. Even President Clinton said that only a "big, big victory" will give her the boost she needs.

The Philadelphia Inquirer observed that there is "consensus" that Clinton has to "take the state big, perhaps by double digits, to be able to claim that she'd won it a way that matters in the overall nomination struggle-given her deficits in both the delegate race and the overall popular vote." [Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/3/08]

Needless to say, Hillary Clinton has a different spin. Clinton told CNN's Larry King:

A win is a win. We're going to go all the way through this process and see where we stand in June.