Clinton Spin Call: "We Have Momentum"

An upbeat, no-pausing Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson claimed momentum for the Clinton campaign in Ohio and Texas.

"I have avoided making Namath-esque predictions throughout this campaign," said Wolfson, the Clinton campaign's New York-bred communications chief. "But I believe it will be very clear [on Wednesday morning] which campaign will have the better of the day and which campaign will have had the worst of it. I am supposititious about making declarative positions, but I believe we will be the successful campaign on Tuesday."

Penn and Wolfson listed three reasons why they said Obama was on the defensive: their chief economics adviser, Austan Goolsbee, was caught back-channeling with the Canadian government on NAFTA; the trial of former Obama pal Tony Rezko; and the Clinton gambit to raise questions about Obama's fitness to be commander in chief.

Reporters came back to the delegate gap between the two. Even if Clinton wins Ohio and Texas, she'll have to win a lot more states by a huge margin to regain the delegate lead. Wolfson and Penn laid out the following scenario: Losing Texas and Ohio means that a "serious case of buyer's remorse" is setting in for Democrats," Wolfson said. "Florida and Michigan are back on the table again," Penn said. Wolfson ticked off a list of states that Clinton had won, including Tennessee, California, New York, California and Massachusetts. "Every week, the Obama campaign holds a conference call to declare her" meaning Clinton "dead." "There's a lot left here before picking the right nominee," Penn said, chiming in.