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The pros

Team Clinton: Down, and Out of Touch

That Clinton’s spokesman is taking his cues from late-night comedy is as good an indication as any of where things stand in the onetime front-runner’s campaign. To keep the press from declaring the race over before the voters of Ohio and Texas have their say next week, Clinton aides have resorted to a mixture of surreal happy talk and angry accusation.

Yesterday, Ickes played the good cop. “We think we are on the verge of our next up cycle,” he reported, even suggesting the apparent impossibility that Clinton “may be running even” with Obama when all the contests are over. “This race is very close,” he judged. “This is tight as a tick.”

The reporters were dubious. The Monitor’s Dave Cook mused about the consequences of Clinton “battling after there’s not much chance.”

“For the love of God, we can’t say there’s not much chance here,” Ickes maintained.

David Chalian of ABC News reminded Ickes that Obama’s lead in delegates is now of the size Ickes had said would be “significant.”

“As we all know in this city, I have a very short memory,” Ickes answered.

Last updated on Tuesday, February 26, 2008