Momentum

Barack Obama won in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington states on Saturday (02/09). He won the state of Maine on Sunday (02/10). He will face off with Hillary Clinton in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, on Tuesday (02/12).
To date, Obama has 943 delegates, compared to Clinton’s 895. (A total number of 2,025 delegates are needed for nomination)

After Sunday’s (02/10) win in Maine, Clinton made a change at the top of her campaign management team. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle stepped down from running the day-to-day operations and was replaced by Maggie Williams. Both of these women have worked with the Clinton’s for many years.

Momentum – that is the word most commonly used to describe Barack Obama’s weekend sweep. When Obama wins state after state, he receives both more media attention and positive media attention. He comes off as a winner; the most important person in American society is a winner. The newspaper interviews and the television news segments all come with winning. This attention re-enforces his image as a winner in the public’s mind. The media coverage leaves the impression of inevitability - he will win the democratic presidential nomination.

On the other hand, Clinton was the loser coming out of this weekend’s election. Her media attention was mostly negative and was hurt considerably by her organizational change, portrayed as a sign of desperation in the media. Clinton’s changing act, coupled with last week’s five million dollar loan to herself, were acts of desperation in the media.

The combination of Obama’s positive attention and Clinton’s negative attention in the media leads to a downward spiral for the Clinton’s campaign. It will be interesting to see if she can counter Obama’s momentum. One big win in Ohio or Texas could turn that momentum around.