OBAMA GOES FOR CLINTON’S THROAT IN PENNSYLVANIA

After a relatively quiet few days during which it appeared that Barack Obama was back on message (party unity, hope) Team Obama has resumed its negative attacks on Hillary Clinton.

Apparently, now that Obama has shaved Clinton’s lead in Pennsylvania to single digits in a frenzy of multi-million dollar Pennsylvania television media buys during the last two weeks (outspending Clinton by a ratio of 4-to-1), Team Obama has decided to take the risk of going for a knockout blow in the Keystone State.

The evidence:

Politico reported yesterday that “the Barack Obama campaign is going to pose a simple question to the undecided voters and undeclared superdelegates who will decide the Democratic nomination for president: If Hillary Clinton can’t run a good primary campaign, how is she ever going to run a good campaign against the Republicans?”

Team Obama clarifies that it is going to hit the mark Penn issue hard in implementing this negative campaign strategy:

“None of these folks have ever run anything, other than Hillary running a health care task force,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, told me Monday. “But these campaigns are big, complicated, pressure-filled enterprises, and it is an important proving ground. […]Mark [Penn] said, ‘This is about delegates,’” Axelrod said. “But to get them, you
have to compete for them in caucuses and primaries. We had an army of eager and willing volunteers in every state, and we were able to rally and marshal them.”

TCPM Election Central reports:

“After leaving this to surrogates for a couple days, the Obama campaign is ratcheting up the pressure on onetime Hillary chief strategist to ax Mark Penn once and for all, in the apparent hope that keeping Penn front and center will weaken her grip on her base of blue collar voters in
Pennsylvania and other remaining states."

“On an Obama campaign conference call moments ago, the Obama camp rolled out high-profile labor supporter James Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who called on the Clinton camp to end Penn's association completely.

“"You can't have a guy on your payroll who's lobbying for Colombia," Hoffa said, adding that it was time for her to "end his services completely." He blasted Penn for "taking money from a foreign nation" to boost the free trade agreement that "she says she's going to vote against."”

“Hoffa added that Penn was a continuing drain on Hillary's credibility," claiming that Penn is "still calling the shots," which is certainly debatable -- while Penn is still playing a role, obviously, Geoff Garin has taken over as senior strategist.”

Will this combination of massive TV ad expenditures and negative attacks against the Clinton campaign deliver the “knock-out blow” Obama seeks in Pennsylvania?

We will all know in 14 days.

If not, perhaps Obama will then answer the question: If he is more electable, why can’t he close the deal with Democratic voters.