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Clinton Not Idle During Lull In Primary Action

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By JOHN HARWOOD, The New York Times

Published: February 25, 2008

Here's a change that Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign really can believe in: There is no chance whatsoever that she will lose to Barack Obama this week.

That's because, after a remorseless march of contests that began 48 hours after the new year dawned, there are no Democratic delegate selection contests until March 4.

For a candidate on an 11-game losing streak, a break in the action offers a moment for an exhausted team to regroup and to refocus a strategy that hasn't worked.

The pause before next Tuesday's battles in Ohio and Texas - as well as in Rhode Island and Vermont - hardly represents an automatic Clinton advantage. Time has typically been Obama's friend, allowing his charismatic presence, grassroots energy and cash advantage to overcome her familiarity. Obama's strategists - and most others, too - see the same pattern emerging as the contests draw closer.

Yet public surveys have not shown Obama ahead in Ohio or Texas, or in Rhode Island. Clinton aides, meanwhile, cling to their decisive Feb. 5 victory in California as evidence that their candidate remains a force in big states.

That leaves everyone else to wonder: Can the primary campaign yield one more momentum-turning surprise?

For Harold Ickes, a Clinton adviser and a Democratic player for decades, the pause presents an opportunity to counter Obama campaign techniques that Team Clinton has largely ignored.

In Ohio, that means more time to fortify Clinton's blue-collar defenses in Akron and Toledo against onrushing Obama forces - blacks, upscale liberals and, lately, working-class men - in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. In Texas, it means working the Rio Grande Valley to maximize her margin among Hispanics.

She is deploying the same organizing ace - named Ace Smith - who oversaw her 9-point victory in California.

Smith minimizes the importance of Obama's financial superiority in television advertising and direct mail, since Clinton is already universally known. More significant, he argues, is her campaign's commitment to compete with Obama in Texas caucuses far more earnestly than in past caucus fights. Those caucuses occur the same day as the primary and will select about one-third of the state's convention delegates.

Neither Obama nor his campaign aides lack confidence. While winning every contest this month since Feb. 5, he has overtaken Clinton in national Democratic polls and in delegates won.

David Axelrod, Obama's strategist, said election returns were "not the only barometer of progress," citing the public conversion of some erstwhile Clinton superdelegates to Obama.

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