Sen. Barack Obama
could hardly have had a better weekend.
On Sunday he
added the Maine Democratic presidential caucus to the three
contests he swept Saturday against rival Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, giving him momentum heading into Tuesday's
voting in three mid-Atlantic states.
For a cherry on
top, he won a Grammy award Sunday, beating former
president Clinton and others for ''best spoken word album,''
for the audio version of his book, The Audacity of Hope.
While everything
seemed to go Obama's way this weekend, the Clinton
campaign was regrouping. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle
stepped down a few hours before it was clear that
Obama had carried Maine, where both candidates had
addressed crowds on Saturday.
Obama also won in
Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington State on Saturday.
Looking beyond
contests Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland, and the District
of Columbia, the Obama campaign announced Monday it is
starting television advertising throughout Texas
focusing on health care; the primary is March 4. The
ads will begin airing on English-language broadcast
stations Tuesday, and plans are under way for
Spanish-language ads.
Typically it
costs $1 million per week in Texas to wage a statewide
political advertising campaign that saturates the
approximately two-dozen TV markets. Obama raised $32
million in January to Clinton's $13.5 million, and the
former first lady said last week she had lent her
campaign $5 million.
Clinton's aides
have not said when and where she would be advertising in
the state. Texas organizer Garry Mauro, a former state land
commissioner, said Clinton would campaign in all media
markets, though he wouldn't say if she would pay for
advertising everywhere. The major media markets are
Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin.
The Illinois
senator exulted Sunday, telling a crowd of 18,000 in
Virginia Beach, Va., ''We have won on the Atlantic coast, we
have won on the Gulf coast, we have won on the Pacific
coast, and we have won between those coasts.''
The Democratic
nomination is far from decided, with weeks or months of
campaigning still ahead. Clinton, the New York senator and
former first lady, is an experienced, well-financed
campaigner certainly capable of pulling off more
surprise wins, as she did January 8 in New Hampshire.
She also is vying
with Obama for the endorsement of former candidate John
Edwards. Clinton quietly visited Edwards last Thursday in
North Carolina, but Obama decided not to do the same
on Monday.
For now, at
least, the wind is at Obama's back. Polls published Sunday
showed him leading in Maryland and Virginia, which hold
primaries Tuesday, along with the District of
Columbia.
Barring a Clinton
upset in one of those states, her best bet to slow his
momentum may lie in upcoming primaries in Texas, Ohio, and
Pennsylvania.
Obama has looked
buoyant and confident in recent days, basking in huge
crowds that cheer him lustily and call out ''We love you''
and ''Yes, we can!'' (Charles Babington, AP)
