Clinton's Texas advantage

Washington Post:

Sen. Barack Obama left a phone message for J.D. Salinas, the county judge in South Texas's Hidalgo County, last weekend. Former senator Thomas A. Daschle called on the candidate's behalf last Wednesday. "He asked me to be part of the campaign," Salinas said. "I told him it was too late."

Salinas originally backed New Mexico's Bill Richardson for the Democratic nomination, believing that a governor from a state along the Mexican border with a lengthy foreign policy r¿sum¿ had the credentials he was looking for. When Richardson quit the race, Salinas's decision to support Obama's rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was easy. "She's the only candidate who's ever visited South Texas," he said.

Sixteen years ago, as a young volunteer, Salinas helped look after Clinton when she came to McAllen for a big South Texas rally the day before her husband was elected president. He hasn't forgotten that day. "There's no learning curve for Senator Clinton," he said. "She's been coming here for 30 years."

When the Texas primary campaign begins in earnest after Tuesday's vote in Wisconsin, Obama will find stories such as this all over the Lone Star State. From her incidental connections such as the one Salinas described from the 1992 campaign, to deep friendships formed working in Texas during the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern, to acquaintances gained from multiple visits over the past decades, Clinton is rooted in Texas as she is in few other states.

Texas is one of two populous states -- the other is Ohio -- with March 4 primaries, where the Clinton campaign sees the opportunity to arrest Obama's momentum. Both set up well for the senator from New York, at least in initial assessments. Ohio's economic woes make it potentially receptive to Clinton's focus on bread-and-butter issues. Texas, because of its large Hispanic community, provides a base of support that has been critical to Clinton in other states.

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It is a good bet that we will not see her in this pink dress that she wore at a UT rally in 1996. I don't think I have seen the pretty in pink look during this entire campaign. Nevertheless, both the demographics and history giver her certain advantages in Texas that will be hard for Obama to overcome. Which ever one wins the Texas primary, it is very likely the last contest they will win in Texas since neither has a chance of carrying the state in November.