The Cheese has Spoken

Senator Obama has racked up his 9th contest victory in a row. My post yesterday was "Wisconsin doesn't matter." It still doesn't. Obama seems to have won handily in a state he was largely expected to win. The impetus now is on the weeks heading into Ohio. After Hawaii reports tonight, Obama will have likely stretched his streak to 10.

This is where the Clinton campaign will have a very important choice. They are heading into do-or-die territory now. Ohio and Texas will decide the nomination if Clinton loses either. If she wins both then the contest will stretch to Pennsylvania. The choice comes in how negative is she willing to go? The plagarism attack is getting a little traction, but the simple fact that the supposed aggrieved party acknowledges the sharing of ideas won't give it traction for long. The Clintons have tried everything from Obama's Kindergarten papers, to his race, to his "plagarism" to attempt to knock him off his pedestal. None have succeeded and with each round of unsuccessful attacks he is gaining strength and perhaps even some biased media coverage because he has thus far refused to go down the negative road to the extent Clinton has.

But these tactics will lead to some fracturing among the Democratic party. Moreover, it will tarnish Hillary Clinton's personal political stock going forward. She and her campaign need to decide if its worth destroying her reputation and damaging the party to continue these negative campaign tactics. Senator Chuck Schumer (Camp Hillary) and Senator Dick Durbin (Camp Barack) nearly worried themselves silly on Meet the Press this weekend.

The race is far from over, but the voters are starting to trend and Senator Clinton will have a choice about how she wants to compete and the nation has a choice of whether they'll accept her tactics.