HUFFINGTON POST: In dueling conference calls with reporters, the Obama campaign presented an electoral landscape that could prove all but impossible for Clinton to overcome. The Clinton camp responded with defiance, suggesting that Obama was not qualified for the position of commander-in-chief and stressing that they, in fact, were positioned to eke out a delegate victory.
Obama’s campaign manager projected that his boss emerged from Tuesday’s elections in Wisconsin and Hawaii with a net gain of 18 pledged delegates, padding his overall lead over Clinton to 159. “In order for them to erode this pledged delegate lead,” he added, Clinton would “likely have to win [upcoming Ohio and Texas] by more than 20 points…They’re gonna have to win landslides from here on out.”
The Clinton camp took exception to Plouffe’s math. Taking into account superdelegates as well as those from Michigan and Florida (which currently do not count because the states’ parties violated DNC rules), officials with the campaign predicted that sometime around the Puerto Rico primary on June 7, Clinton will have clinched enough support to secure the nomination. MORE