For all of the horrible press she is getting, Hillary Clinton (so far) is holding her own in Wisconsin and Ohio polling. Now, it may be that the full impact of her February 12 losses have not been fully felt and another few days of gloom and doom media accounts will send her into a permanent downward spiral. But it could be that all those “lunch bucket” Democrats are unimpressed with Obama-mania and don’t much care about the tales of meltdown within Hillaryland. At the very least she has lowered expectations for Wisconsin and a respectable showing might boost her chances in Ohio. But it would help if she spent some time there.

She does have two debates, on February 21 and 26, which come too late for Wisconsin, but in plenty of time to make some news before the March 4 primaries. To make some headway, she, I suspect, will have to put away the smiles and go after her opponent. She must plant the seeds of doubt: what has he done, what does he really want to do, and how will he hold his own against John McCain? The risk is that the screechy, nasty Hillary re-emerges and makes things worse. But at this point she has little to lose.