More Clinton 'spin'
Posted: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 3:39 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Andy Merten
In the Clinton campaign's second conference call with reporters in the last two days, communications director Howard Wolfson said -- at least four times -- that "the results tonight will be inconclusive."
"The results will be inconclusive. Sen. Obama will do well in some parts of the country; in other parts of the country, Sen Clinton will do well. So this will be just another step, although a large step, on the road to Denver and choosing a nominee."
Asked if there won't be momentum and bragging rights coming out of the returns, Wolfson joked: "Sure, whoever wins New York can be declared the winner."
He then went on to MEGA-spin outcomes in Massachusetts and California. According to Wolfson, Massachusetts right now is "tight as a tick," and since Sen. Kennedy has what he called a "machine" -- without mentioning the Boston mayor's machine working overtime for Clinton -- Wolfson said if Obama doesn't win Massachusetts it will be a "disappointment." In fact, Clinton has held a double-digit lead in most Massachusetts polls up until now.
Similarly, he tried to suggest that if Obama doesn't win California it will be a "disappointment" because of the Maria Shriver/Oprah endorsements and campaign events -- even though polls have shown Clinton with a solid lead in the state until now.
Wolfson said the California campaign will be close, and he suspects it will be a very late night. He pointed out that Obama has put considerable resources into California and has had great surrogates.
Wolfson also made the campaign's latest argument that Michigan and Florida delegates should be seated, and when asked about the other Democratic candidates didn't even have their names on the ballot in Michigan, he said: "I think they removed their names from the ballot because they didn't think they would fare well."
And he announced the Clinton campaign has accepted a FOX debate on Feb 11th in Washington DC that would air on local FOX broadcast TV in DC/Virginia/Maryland suburbs, prior to the voting there on Feb. 12. Wolfson said that Clinton and Obama should debate once a week -- from now on.
In fact, Clinton said this herself in an interview with an affiliate TV station this morning. "I think we should debate once a week, because we're just getting down to the two of us. That's only been the case for the last week. And there are a lot of differences between us that need to be explored, and voters need to have information."
