Why isn’t Hillary Clinton competing more strenuously in Wisconsin? She camped out in Texas last night and is not setting foot in Wisconsin until Saturday. This seems unwise. I think the decision (made before Tuesday’s election returns, I believe) betrays a lack of appreciation for the degree to which her campaign is in peril. It makes sense to “skip” a poor state if you think it might trip you up on your way to victory, but now Clinton, more than anything else, needs Obama to fall short of expectations. Even a close second in Wisconsin might look pretty good now. It is not a bad place to make a run. She trails in the last poll (albeit before Tuesday night’s results) by less than 5 points. Yes, Obama has college kids galore, lots of anti-Iraq war sentiment and tons of momentum. However, John Coleman, Wisconsin University political science professor and guru on state politics, reminds me: “Wisconsin is not a high income state and manufacturing is still important here. She has been doing better among those who see the economy as the number one issue, and this is a state in which the economic news has been on the downslide lately. There is a populist streak in the state, and she might be able to fine tune her economic message to tap into that.”