The Note: 'Still Standing'

April 10, 2008 -- The front door closed to her, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to tiptoe around the back of the house to break through as her party's nominee. (At this moment, as even Clinton supporters acknowledge, she's probably too much of a plodder to make it.)

But really, she can't do it if she's quiet. Subtlety won't work as she seeks to convince superdelegates that only she -- not Sen. Barack Obama -- can win this fall. She needs to take loud steps (as if Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe were capable of moving around in silence).

Yes, the broad cause has a narrow path. (And Colin Powell isn't helping.)

Yet among the key points that must not be forgotten: The superdelegates have the power to end this race right now. They aren't.

Just maybe Camp Clinton has gotten control of this spiral the campaign has found itself in -- and Elton John doesn't hurt. Wednesday's night's concert raised $2.5 million helping refill near-bare coffers (remember that you can't buy TV ads on credit) and setting a defiant tone for a stretch where exhausted aides and supporters need all the hope they can get.

"You did not come in vain," the former president said. "She can win the nomination." Said Sir Elton: "I never cease to be amazed by the misogynistic attitude of some people in this country. . . . I say, to hell with them."(As Newsday's Glenn Thrush points out, the message dovetails nicely with Sen. Clinton's view of the "double standard.")

Said Sen. Clinton: "What I want you to know is, I'm still standing."

Indeed she is, and her Olympic critique gives her a fresh message opening -- and is forcing Obama to take a stance on a tough issue (and there's still daylight between him and Clinton). "If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security, and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the President should boycott the opening ceremonies," Obama said Wednesday in a statement, per ABC's Sunlen Miller.

She's hoping a pushback ad on radio (yes, money really is that tight) taking on Obama over energy policy gets her must desperately needed traction. "What's clear from the ads is that despite the change in her strategy team, Clinton is not prepared just yet to go quietly into that good night," Washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza writes.

And Clinton's best surrogate is a member of her family -- just not the family member we all assumed it would be. "In light of a string of setbacks for her mother's campaign, including impolitic remarks by her father, Chelsea is arguably the most seamless part of the struggling Clinton operation," The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut writes, pointing out that Chelsea's next stop will be her 100th campaign event.

"The once and perhaps future first daughter is branching out in ways that the Clinton campaign -- which practically had to beg the candidate to allow her to appear in Iowa late last year -- never imagined."

(Chelsea has nearly 1,600 Facebook friends as of Thursday morning -- but how many of them can ask her a question?)

Pennsylvania is clearly Clinton's must-win state -- but the fact that Obama is expending so much time and money there means that if she does win (and does so convincingly), it will mean something. Obama needs not to peak too soon.

"Hillary Clinton's camp complained Wednesday that Barack Obama was trying to buy the Pennsylvania Democratic primary with an extensive television advertising campaign, saying his rising popularity with the state's voters was partly the result of misleading ads," Christi Parsons and Mark Silva write in the Chicago Tribune.

Said Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson: "He is doing everything he can to win in Pennsylvania. . . . And if he doesn't win, it will be a significant defeat for him."

"Hillary Clinton knows she can only win the Democratic presidential nomination by finding a way to fight on through the party's August convention in Denver," Mark Halperin of Time and ABC News writes. "For now, she is battling one day at a time, trying to have enough success at the ballot box and in the media wars to keep her supporters on board and limit calls for her to quit."

But now that the White House and congressional leaders are in a full-on trade war, look out for the collateral damage.

With House leaders' move to shelve the agreement (a vote is set for Thursday), "both sides [are] using trade as a surrogate for an election-year battle over jobs, national security and the sinking economy," The New York Times' Steven R. Weisman reports. "In the background was a rich brew of presidential politics."

Among the joys of having three sitting senators running for president is that actions on the Hill matter a great deal to the race for the White House: "Democrats signaled their determination to escalate their power struggle in Mr. Bush's final months in office," Greg Hitt and John D. McKinnon write in The Wall Street Journal.

"Democrats are eager to cast the White House and congressional Republicans as out of touch on the economy. White House officials in turn note that Democrats have accomplished little so far that would help on the specific problem areas, notably the housing sector."

The danger here for Clinton is not just about the Colombia trade deal that's now the object of such acrimony between the executive and legislative branches.

The real problem in the current dust-up over trade is that -- by highlighting former President Bill Clinton's support for the Colombia deal -- it opens up a messy bag of potential conflicts of interest.

Know that Clinton wanted to talk about the Iraq war Wednesday in Pennsylvania: "Economic issues intruded, however, with Clinton denying in a news conference that there was conflict in her campaign because she opposes expanded trade with Colombia, in contrast to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her former chief strategist," Thomas Fitzgerald writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The union battle is raging in Pennsylvania. "As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vie for voters in Pennsylvania's presidential primary, another rivalry is playing out between two of the state's largest unions," Bloomberg's Kim Chipman writes. Clinton's AFSCME and Obama's SEIU are in a showdown "more bitter than the contest between Clinton and Obama."

Don't look now -- but could Obama be building a solid, stable lead? (Who wants to bet this changes by weekend?) Per the Gallup release, "For the third consecutive day, Barack Obama holds a significant advantage over Hillary Clinton in national Democratic preferences for the Democratic presidential nomination, now 51% to 41%."

Throw this into the mix -- how big would this endorsement be? "I'm looking at all three candidates," former secretary of state Colin Powell told ABC's Diane Sawyer, in an interview broadcast Thursday on "Good Morning America." "I know them all very, very well. I consider myself a friend of each and every one of them. And I have not decided who I will vote for yet."