Reeling from 10 defeats in a row, Hillary Clinton is expected to aggressively challenge Barack Obama in a debate in Texas tonight, in hopes of preventing his campaign from becoming a juggernaut that rolls through the remaining primaries.
“If I were managing her right now, I’d have her take the risk of sounding too shrill, simply to try to get him off balance,” said Bob Beckel, who managed Democrat Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign. “I’ve noticed that if Obama has a weakness in debates, it’s that he doesn’t respond well to criticism.”
The Clinton campaign made clear that it will not be shy about ratcheting up its attacks on Obama in the run-up to crucial primaries in Ohio and Texas on March 4.
“As more and more scrutiny is paid to Senator Obama, more information is going to come out,” said Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director.
During a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Wolfson and other Clinton advisers continued to accuse Obama of plagiarizing the speeches of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. They also criticized Obama’s links to fundraiser Tony Rezko, who is in jail on political corruption charges.
But those controversies were largely played out by Tuesday and did not stop Obama from trouncing Clinton in Wisconsin and Hawaii, extending his winning streak to 10 primaries and caucuses.
Eager for new ammunition against Obama, Clinton officials seized on a video clip of Obama surrogate Kirk Watson, a Texas state senator, admitting on MSNBC that he could not name a single legislative accomplishment of Obama. Clinton brought up the gaffe at a rally on Wednesday and is expected to bring it up at tonight’s debate in Austin.
Meanwhile, Obama had no compunction about leveling his own criticism at Clinton. During a rally in Dallas Wednesday, he accused her of “the politics of divisions and distractions that did not work in South Carolina, that did not work in Wisconsin and that will not work in Texas.”
