The Politico: Obama victory leaves Clinton scrambling
By: Mike Allen and Ben Smith
Jan 4, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) heads out of Iowa as the biggest news story in the world and a force that strategists for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are uncertain how to stop. With the New Hampshire primary just four days away, Clinton and her team now must convince voters that choosing Obama would be risky for the party and the country — but they must do it in a way that doesn’t make her look small or desperate....
Clinton’s camp had felt she had a better chance of winning New Hampshire than Iowa, and her press in the Granite State has generally been good. But with the vicious media coverage she now seems likely to face, she could well go 0 for 2 heading into the South Carolina primary, where a strong black vote provides an inviting environment for Obama....
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Obama’s campaign recognized the opportunity of Iowa long before Clinton realized the potential peril. She set out to build a national campaign that didn’t depend on any given state, not realizing that Iowa would come to be seen as a make-or-break event for a candidacy that was long bolstered by an aura of inevitability.
Democratic strategists said Clinton plans a two-track recovery strategy. First, on the process side, she will bolster her staff in key states and also is expected to introduce some new faces at headquarters. Those are expected to include veterans of President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign — the architects of the “Comeback Kid” strategy. “They need to reassure their base of support that they know what the hell they’re doing,” said one Democratic official close to the campaign. “There are donors out there who are saying, 'What have we invested in here?' And they need to give the media a pivot point — show that they are going to make changes so that the outcome is different going forward.”
The second track will be Clinton’s message, signaled in her concession speech: gracious, embracing change, but raising the question of who is best prepared to bring about change. In talking points for Clinton surrogates, the campaign hinted at the harder message to come: “We’re going to continue to make the case that in these serious times, when America faces big challenges, it will take a leader with Hillary’s strength and experience to deliver real change.”
Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committeeman and major Clinton supporter from Long Island, looked at the bright side, saying: “Being the underdog will be very liberating.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7709.html