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Obama Wants SC Close

By wt

The latest average of South Carolina polls is here.

Obama: 38.4
Clinton: 26.8
Edwards: 19.2

That's a huge lead for Obama over Clinton, and a big lead for Clinton over Edwards.

So winning isn't really in the cards for Hillary. But she could potentially make it a little bit closer if she wanted to. At this point though, she is probably fine just finishing second.

Managing the expectations game this past week, Bill Clinton has been in South Carolina the whole time while Hillary travels elsewhere. And now the spin is already coming out that Florida(!) is an important primary next Tuesday.

Why not focus on South Carolina? Well, the truth is, the bigger the margin between Obama and Clinton (as long as she finishes above Edwards), the more it looks like Obama had it in the bag the whole time.

The exit polls of Obama beating Hillary in 5 different categories are going to be irrelevant, as Hillary just didn't put in much effort here. And everything else that Obama can say is mitigated by the fact that this wasn't a full-blown race.

So I think Hillary would love to finish double digits behind Obama. Especially if the alternative is losing to him by a point or two and facing reports that "Obama won a close, hard-fought battle."

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on January 26, 2008 (boomark / email).