Hillary Finished?

She hasn't even begun to fight. Via Marc Ambinder:

Allies of Hillary Clinton plan an expensive, stealth campaign to buttress her standing in the must-win states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

They're canvassing Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000 in the hope of raising at least $10M by the end of next week. The money will be placed in the account of a political committee organized under section 527 of the tax code.

A Democrat who was briefed on the project said that Pennsylvania attorney William A. K. Titelman is leading the effort to solicit money. Titleman, who raised money for Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential campaign, has not contributed money to Clinton. He did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The group is called the American Leadership Project, which, as Jake Tapper explains, won't be able to coordinate with the Clinton campaign on account of campaign finance regulations, but could still deal heavy damage to Obama:

The group is targeting through TV ads, mail, and phone communications white women under 50 in the Ohio area -- specifically Cleveland, Columbus, Youngstown, Charleston (WV), Wheeling- Steubenville, Zanesville, and Parkersburg (WV).

White men will also be a focus, and if there are any excess funds Latinos in Texas and middle class families in Pennsylvania will also be targeted.

ALP has developed three ads aimed at pushing the idea that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is a talker and not a doer -- the ads are called "If speeches could solve problems" -- and they will contrast Obama and Clinton on issues of importance to middle class voters, such as the economy, health care, and the mortgage crisis.

"Our purpose is to encourage audiences to look beyond the campaign speeches and political rhetoric to specific proposals to address these core issues," says an ALP mission statement obtained by ABC News.

The plan right now is for the TV ads to never actually mention Obama -- rather, the statements about rhetoric vs. reality will go after him through implication, the contrast between Clinton and Obama already being so well-known.

One good note from last night for Clinton is that her campaign effectively controlled the expectations game with the media by constantly talking up Ohio and Texas, a la Giuliani with Florida. It doesn't make the sting of defeat any less painful, and there are some who think it's all over, but the campaign has succeeded in whetting the media's appetite for a spectacular showdown on March 4, which is already being promoted as a sequel to Super Tuesday. Someone call Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer.



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