Going Deep in the Deep South

But Obama has been battling back—with the help of a key Clinton supporter. In an interview with a California Web site called the Daily Breeze, former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro made a statement that threatened New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitute-driven dominance of the political news. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she said. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Obama's supporters seized on the remarks and demanded a full denunciation from Clinton, who said she disagreed with the comments—an insufficiently strong stance, in Team Obama's eyes. Ferraro fanned the flames of the controversy further by suggesting that she was being faulted for the remarks only because of her race. "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white." (It was not the first time Ferraro has courted controversy with racially charged remarks. In 1988, four years after she made history on the Democratic ticket, she dismissed Jesse Jackson's presidential run and the easy treatment she felt he was getting from the press. "If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race," she said at the time.)

At this rate it will be a long six weeks. The length of the campaign ahead—without any new election results—demands something more than rallies, roundtables, town halls and dueling conference calls. The Obama campaign is already deeply engaged in a planning process that includes, in the words of Obama's senior strategist David Axelrod, "some wrinkles to keep it interesting."

Amid the public war of words, the real struggle continues behind the scenes: for the fealty of the all-important superdelegates. Since Feb. 5 the Obama campaign has steadily closed the gap on Clinton's lead among party insiders. Obama's aides are still hopeful that they can win the commitments of enough superdelegates to reach the magic number to clinch the nomination well before the party's convention in August. It will not be an easy feat. The Clinton team is playing up the fact that its candidate has won many of the biggest states in the country—and the ones that will be essential to a Democratic victory in the fall. Obama forces counter with his edge in the popular vote to date, the number of states in his column, and his edge in pledged delegates. The superdelegates will help decide which argument carries the day in Denver.

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