At a press conference all about lowering expectations, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe got a little peeved when asked about the Clinton campaign’s announcement today that she will be doing four more debates, calling the move a “tactic out of the second tier congressional campaign playbook so I’m a little surprised that we’ve spent so much time talking about it today,” he told reporters.
Lest you think Hillary might end up debating herself, Plouffe did say Obama will do more debates. “We’re obviously going to set our schedule including debates and we’ll do more debates,” Plouffe said. “But our schedule is not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign. So we’ll figure out what we’re going to do and, hopefully, we’ll continue to debate.”
As he did in a campaign memo yesterday, Plouffe predicted a Hillary win in both delegates and states tonight and said the race could go all the way to August. “I have always believed that one of us would get the upper hand, even if it was more of a political upper hand but, you know, it remains to be seen. I think both of us are going to try and make that happen but we’re both prepared for a long drawn out affair here,” Plouffe said.
What is the upper hand? “We’ll know it when we see it.”