Working to "fight plant closures and protect American jobs" is a pitch aimed not at working-class voters, Eric, but specifically at working-class white voters? Really?

Aren't there working class white and Hispanic voters in Indiana, too?

"but the fact that he's already running these ads means he expects the contest to keep dragging on after Pennsylvania"

Disagree. All it means is he's hedging his bets.

If he does lose delegates in Pennsylvania, he wants the biggest possible wins in the next few states to regain and extend his lead.

Also, the more he pulls ahead in North Carolina and Indiana, the more people in Pennsylvania may be convinced that a vote for Clinton is futile at this point and that could be reflected in the actual vote there.

I'm not arguing with the idea that the contest will continue after Penn (I agree), but I think you've oversimplified Obama's strategy here.

I really, really like that Indiana ad. It's exactly the right message.

Quote: "but the fact that he's already running these ads means he expects the contest to keep dragging on after Pennsylvania, where Hillary is expected to win on April 22"

Either that or he's -- gasp! -- looking ahead. He has a plan for "after Pennsylvania."

Money talks ..bullshit walks...Clinton's broke

There is just one place That can light my face. Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but-- Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, My home sweet home

He should show the Indiana ad in western Pa. It would really resonate here as well.

Why the f*ck do you have to say working class WHITE voters?

Do you really have to pull something like that our of your butt and make this about race?

What the hell is wrong with you?

". . . but the fact that he's already running these ads means he expects the contest to keep dragging on after Pennsylvania, where Hillary is expected to win on April 22."

Nooooo . . . it means they're working a strategy where there are multiple possible outcomes and going on the air in NC and Indiana is a good idea in all events. Running ads there now both builds his polling lead in North Carolina and starts building one in Indiana and demonstrates his strong financial advantage. Both of these help potentially demoralize her supporters and contributors and put pressure on Hillary to quit.

And, even if she she "suspends" her campaign before then, he still has to actually win in those states. If he went limp and then Hillary did better there than expected despite not actively campaigning, all of a sudden her coffin creaks open once again.

Black voters already overwhelmingly support Obama. By specifying "white voters" Eric may have meant the main undecided audience the ad hopes to sway.

According to the Union Leader, New Hampshire has buyer's remorse: http://tinyurl.com/2eotce

Actually, not so much. I lived in Indiana for nearly 30 years until about 2 years ago.

Indianapolis has a significant black population, as well as do parts of the "region" (the Lake Michigan/Chicago suburb area dominated by steel mills) such as Gary.

Other than that, Indiana is whiter than Wonder Bread.

I'm sure he meant primarily to gain more support from working-class white. Actually, to tell you the truth, when I first read it, I didn't even notice white.

A thread of reasonable length WITHOUT ONE STINKING TROLL.

Breathe the air of freedom, ladies and gentlemen.

And don't feed the trolls when they come back.

With regard to Obama's campaigning: I don't think we have adequately measured the degree to which Obama is a party guy, a Chicago Democrat. He hasn't "attacked" HRC. He has disagreed with a number of her positions, seldom dramatically. He has suggested that her claims of extensive governing experience are at the least "special". He has never suggested that she wouldn't make a good president, and he has never said that he wouldn't support her if she won.

Whatever one's imagination brings in, about the supposed hatred between them - as long as you act properly in party terms, you aren't obligated to reveal whether your liking for someone is "genuine". By this long-established standard, HRC has done almost all the attacking. Even in South Carolina, Obama barely expressed annoyance at being tag-teamed.

Sure there are campaign operatives and surrogates that say things that are later soft-pedaled or disavowed by candidates. That is the reason for having surrogates! It isn't automatically dog whistle politics. Obama has studiously refrained from suggesting that HRC is somehow less capable because she is a woman, and he really has not said a word about the causes celèbres of the Clinton administration. One little blue dress reference does not a dog whistle make.

As a result of Obama's politeness, Hillary Clinton has been able to define herself in the public consciousness almost without interference. Think of this. Almost all her voting support has been inherited from Bill via name recognition. She has some extra support from women in most areas. She could have portrayed herself as Eleanor Roosevelt in a pantsuit. She could have channelled Aristotle.

Instead, she has created a public persona that reminds me of a yappy little dog with dyed fur. In her image gyrations she has actually managed to look very pretty at times...which makes it especially regrettable that she has become an angry, indignant, frowning, grimacing character. This campaign went through the looking glass for Hillary somewhere between "I am honored to be here with Barack Obama" and "Shame on you, Barack Obama".

She lost the very first Presidential primary she was in. She should have won it; she lost it because of her diffidence. She only got geared up for campaigning after she had actually lost. And while her desperate energy is impressive (the way a four-car pileup is), she absolutely has not demonstrated anything like the legendary wonkitude of the early Bill Clinton.

Reagan could make you feel that everything was OK in a radio speech, and you could digest your meal. Clinton would actually get you thinking that "it could be done", whatever it was, without damaging corporate profits and portfolio returns! HRC talks a pretty good game, but it's always in this me-against-the-big-boys mode that swaps feistiness for deft policy argument. Policy is not a sleeping pill. It is possible to talk policy to the voters and make sense. But you have to really understand the underlying situation - that is, you have to bridge the gap between a judgment about the most important statistics at this point in time, and the narrative and anecdotal items that can clinch the argument in voters' minds.

The dominant theme now is HRC's brilliant Senate career. She's to become the Ted Kennedy of our generation. Well, she can start by becoming truthfully expert on ONE major area of policy. I'm not talking about areas regarding which she can talk the legs off chairs. Bill cared about the people. He felt their pain, and it seemed true. At bottom I am not quite able to believe that HRC truly cares about anything except winning. For that reason I am glad that she won't be the first woman President, because I should very much like to admire the first woman President.

If Hillary Clinton had presented herself in ANY other way - if she had come across as thoughtful, measured, sober, respectful, conciliatory, self-deprecatory, really tolerant, self-assured, at home anywhere in America...if she had made herself likable, in short - she'd be winning. What her campaign has measured, by draining to the bottom, was the amount of feeling America had for the way it went down from 1998 to 2000. Not only did the country choose wrong, but Hillary herself was owed a debt of respect for having been humiliated in the press.

We wanted to like her; somehow we suspected we would have a hard time doing it; now the thought of seeing her BLAME OTHERS for things she'll be responsible for, for four years on TV almost makes me want to leave the country.

Her Iraq vote, like her husband's draft letter, was given for the sake of "political viability". If she was really a hawk, that would be one thing. But she is neither hawk nor dove. On health care, it's apparent that she would allow the benefits to be reduced in order to make sure the "universal" label sticks - and therefore her entire program could fail to be comprehensive reform. It could end up as little more than a temporary health care subsidy, a sort of economic stimulus.

At another time I'll analyze the positions that Obama PROBABLY holds, far beyond what he's said. Oh, yes, he is an iceberg candidate. He is probably more progressive than he has let on. I WANT him to keep his cards close to his chest because I trust his power of analysis. He's not spilling everything for Hillary, nor will he for McCain. But that paradoxically is part of getting things done in actual fact.

I guess he could go the other route. Pick a date on which the campaign will be over by his rosy estimate, and do no planning or advance groundwork for anything after that date.

Hillary's campaign was set up that way, and it worked out really well for her, didn't it?

One thing Hillary supporters don't seem to understand:

It's not even that Black voters support Obama all that much. It's that, after all the b.s. she has pulled, they f*ckin' hate Hillary! A Black lawyer friend told me that Hillary reminds him of people in his past . . . patronizing White liberals who had no problem with you as long as they were in the position of seeming superiority. But outscore them on an exam . . . land a job that they wanted . . . get into a better graduate school. Then you will hear the "affirmative action" discussion, how "great" it is the Black person was able to "take advantage" of their race.

Remind you of anyone . . . Geraldine Ferraro saying Obama would not be where he was if he wasn;t so "lucky" to be Black? Or Hillary writing off Louisiana because "they have a larger African American population that is excited about my opponant's candidacy . . . and that's great." That, my Hillary-backing friends, is why she will never be president. Because she has pissed off and pissed away a loyal (probably TOO loyal) Black base.