Obama manager ready for long night, fight

by John McCormick

CHICAGO -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager continued to try to temper expectations this evening, as he briefed reporters in advance of the first poll closings for Super Tuesday.

"We believed all along, unless we really did win the first four states in an impressive fashion, that Feb. 5 was a daunting day for us," David Plouffe said. "Our path to the nomination never required us to win more delegates than her on this day, or more states. I doubt either of those things will happen today, but we do think the delegate total will be closer than maybe we thought a week ago."

Plouffe said the campaign is looking well beyond whatever the results are tonight, with eight contests (Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington State, the Virgin Islands, Maine, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia) in the next seven days.

"We are going to wake up tomorrow morning and we've got three meaningful contests three days from now, and we've got a major contest on Feb. 12th, so there's a lot of room to cover," he said.

Asked how long he expects the Democratic nomination battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton will continue, Plouffe said he has no idea.

"I don't think anyone can tell you with any certainty," he said. "I've always believed that one of us will get the upper hand, even if more a political upper hand….But we are both preparing for a long, drawn-out affair here."

Later, he added: "If it goes through June, it goes through June."

With $32 million coming in the door alone in January, Plouffe said Obama will continue to have the financial resources needed for a long, expensive fight. Still, he said, wins do help raise money.

"It depends on how tonight goes," he said. "If we have a good outcome tonight….our people follow the race very carefully."

Plouffe said that polls suggest Clinton's lead has shrunk in many states and that if a race is within a few points in any given state, it will likely mean that the delegates from there will be split roughly evenly. "That has real import from a delegate standpoint," he said.

Once Tuesday's voting is over, Plouffe said the state hurdles ahead look better for Obama.

"We get to states in small bite sizes – two or three on a day – where we think we can actually get in there and campaign and have the focus be a little bit more intensive," he said.

Plouffe said he believes Obama is benefiting more than Clinton from the recent exit from the race of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

"She has a ceiling in a lot of these states. So, if she's polling at 38, 40, 42, now that Edwards is out of the race, you need 47 or 48 or 49 if you are going to win a state," he said. "She has ceiling issues and the people who aren't for her, we think are very available to us."

Plouffe said Obama has no intention of getting into a debate over more debates with Clinton.

"We've done 18 debates," he said. "We're obviously going to set our schedule including debates…But our schedule is not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign."