Next stop, Puerto Rico

The morning after the Ohio and Texas primaries felt like Groundhog Day. Instead of a spring beginning for Sen. Barack Obama as the presumptive nominee, Punxsutawney Phil awoke, saw his shadow and proclaimed six more weeks of cold, harsh winter campaigning.

The most promising candidate in the Democratic race faces at least seven more weeks of battling Sen. Hillary Clinton, until the now-very important April 22 primary in the groundhog's home state, Pennsylvania.

Obama has to treat the Keystone State as if it were first in the nation. He must go all out and buck assumptions that as Ohio goes, so does Pennsylvania.

Many experts see Pennsylvania as Clinton country and there are similarities between the two rust-belt states. Both have populations older than the national average. Both have residents battered by a changing economy and flaws of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

One pundit, Howard Fineman, made sense on MSNBC when he all but advised Obama not to treat Pennsylvania as Ohio redux. Fineman said cities such as his native Pittsburgh are changing from places filled with steel-mill workers to places inhabited by college students and health-care professionals.

It is true that older voters favor Clinton. Pennsylvania voters skew even older than those in Ohio, according to the U.S. Census.

It is also true that many voters made up their minds shortly before the latest primaries. Clinton had a good week, Obama, a bad one.

A nasty Clinton ad helped her campaign. It was a scare tactic featuring the White House emergency red phone ringing at 3 a.m., and who do you want answering the phone?

In many states, Obama had been able to make his mantra for change more important than Clinton's experience, alleged and otherwise. He can do it again, especially among voters yet to make a decision.

Pennsylvania, with its late-April primary, has not been this important for a few election cycles. Voters will be open to a broad range of messages. Obama has to wow them with his transcendent vision of hope, and his ability to bring Democrats and Republicans together to forge a new course for the country.