The Kitchen Sink

Hillary Clinton is not going down without a fight. In the past day, she has visited the Ohio towns of Pomeroy, Rio Grande and Hanging Rock (in Rio Grande she made a pit stop at the original Bob Evansfamily restaurant, where Chelsea joined her for a meet and greet), as well as Houston, Ft. Worth, and Waco, Texas. After arriving in Ft. Worth on Friday morning at about 2 a.m., Clinton left her hotel bright and early to attend the funeral of a Dallas police officer who died last week in an accident that occurred as he escorted her motorcade to a rally. Her blitz leaves reporters 30 years her junior begging for mercy. And there is no sign of a letup before the polls close in the crucial states of Ohio and Texas next Tuesday night.

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But Clinton's strategy at this crucial juncture is about much more than just endurance. She is using every weapon in her arsenal to try to correct the impression--shared, off the record, in hushed conversations with reporters, by members of her staff--that Tuesday could well mark the end of her campaign. The last several days have been like a microcosm of the entire race--with Clinton by turns talking up her experience, pummeling her opponent, appealing for empathy and outwonking everyone in sight.

The traveling press secretary, Jamie Smith, has been sending a steady stream of e-mails in the past couple of days, all of them brimming with sunny news. Today, the traveling press got a message from Smith summarizing a new Pew poll that shows more Americans believe Hillary Clinton is tough and experienced than believe that about Barack Obama. The poll also showed more voters say Clinton has provided enough information about her policies and plans. Yesterday, Smith sent out excerpts of letters from devout supporters. Ann, of Beacon, N.Y., shared that while her "husband has been out of a job for 6 months … he insisted that I send Hillary a donation. It was only $25 but it comes from our hearts."

The Clinton camp is also trying to raise expectations as high as possible for the opposition. Under the subject heading "Obama Must-Wins," the campaign asserted, "The media has anointed Barack Obama the presumptive nominee and he's playing the part. With an 11-state winning streak coming out of February, Senator Obama is riding a surge of momentum that has enabled him to pour unprecedented resources into Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Obama campaign and its allies are outspending us two-to-one in paid media and have sent more staff into the March 4 states … If he cannot win all of these states with all of this effort, there's a problem … The message will be clear: Democrats, the majority of whom have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date, have their doubts about Senator Obama."

For voters who respond to less subtle forms of persuasion, there's the new Clinton attack ad, unveiled Friday in Texas. It portrays the dangers children face in a dangerous world. "It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep," the ad opens, over images of sleeping kids. "But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something's happened in the world. Your vote will decide who answers the call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military. Someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

The Obama camp wasted little time branding the ad fear-mongering, and some critics say it's reminiscent of LBJ's infamous "Daisy" ad, which depicted a mushroom cloud behind a little girl playing with flowers. Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist described the ad as "very positive" on a conference call with reporters Friday. "It has very soft images--not at all like that ["Daisy"] ad--and it poses to people questions they have to answer." In Waco on Friday afternoon, Clinton told a cheering crowd: "Senator Obama says if we talk about national security in this campaign, we're trying to scare people. Well, I don't think Texans scare very easily … There's a big difference between giving speeches about national security and giving orders as commander in chief. There's a difference between delivering a speech at an antiwar rally … and picking up that phone in the White House at 3 in the morning to deal with an international crisis … Senator Obama talks about these issues, but when it came time to act [by voting on Iraq as she did] he was missing in action … By 2004 he was saying he wasn't sure how he would have voted because he never had to."