The Barack Obama campaign for the Presidency picked up more momentum tonight on its way to the key states of Ohio and Texas. The Clinton campaign went negative in Wisconsin in the week leading up to tonight’s vote, and the move was anything but successful (At the time of this posting Obama leads by 17 percentage points in Wisconsin and is expected to win easily in his home state of Hawaii.)

Now the eyes of the country turn to the March 4^th primaries in Ohio and Texas. In Texas Obama has closed the gap to within the margin of error according to the most recent CNN poll that shows Obama with 48% to Clinton’s 50%. Clinton’s lead is larger in Ohio where she leads Obama by 9 percentage points (in the most recent poll by SurveyUSA.) Exit polls tonight have shown that Obama was able to cut into the middle class Democratic vote that Clinton once dominated. This has to have the Clinton campaign wondering if their current lead in the polls will hold going into the March 4^th  contests.

It is difficult to see how the Clinton camp would be able to recover from defeats in both Texas and Ohio. If Clinton does go on to lose I think we can expect this campaign to venture down into territory that would make the bickering this last week in Wisconsin seem G-rated.

To a certain extent, the negative ads in Wisconsin could simply be the Clinton campaign testing the waters. The attacks on Obama this week were relatively light. Pressuring Obama to participate in a Wisconsin debate, health care coverage and accusations of plagiarism did not phase the Obama camp, they dealt with both attacks swiftly and effectively.

Increasing the intensity of attacks at a time when Senator Clinton is watching her lead in Texas collapse would expose her campaign to be what it is no doubt becoming, panicked and desperate.   

The next debate between Clinton and Obama, to be held in Austin, Texas on Thursday night (CNN at 8pm EST) will no doubt set the tone for the following 11 days.  Clinton needs to emerge from Thursday night’s debate with an issue or theme that she can effectively use on the campaign trail to at least slow down Obama’s ten straight wins worth of momentum.  

If Clinton loses Texas and Ohio, I think James Carville is right, I think then it is over for the Clinton campaign. At least it should be, but I doubt the Clintons will give up the fight. At that point I think it would be difficult for Michigan, Florida and the super delegates to save her, at least in the eyes of public opinion. If Clinton was to continue the fight after losing Ohio and Texas, I would have to believe that McCain and the Republicans would be rejuvenated by the blood that would soon spill.

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