Intellectual Property Law

Senator Hillary Clinton won the battleground states of Ohio and Texas in Tuesday's election contest, and exit polls show that race played a role in her victory.

As many political observers note, the New York senator has deep ties in Texas. She also had a tight ground operation run by Ace Smith, a campaign veteran who helped her to win California.

Ohio voters may have had their prior predilections. But an interview with an Ohioan with misapprehensions about Obama's religious beliefs and patriotism on CBS News' 60 Minutes last Sunday, and chatter on the political listservs suggest that the malicious e-mail campaign against senator Barack Obama may have had an impact.

Nevertheless, Clinton won big in Ohio, and as the senator points out, "no candidate in recent history, Democratic or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary."

Of course, if a voter's made up their mind about a candidate based on very specific personal opinions, no amount of door-knocking, block-walking or phone-calling is going to change anyone's mind.

When I spoke to one Obama volunteer phone-banker recently, he admitted that he didn't feel as if he'd had much of an impact because many of the call recipients on the other end either weren't there, or were Clinton supporters. (Some of those Clinton supporters tried to turn the conversation around and convince the phone-banker to vote for Clinton.)

But I'm wondering what Tuesday's results reflect about the effectiveness of Obama's grass-roots campaign -- particularly in Ohio. Any readers in the battleground states with any thoughts?

See Also:

• Obama: I'm Not a Muslim! Forward This to Everyone You Know