A hard slog for Pennsylvania

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are marshalling their forces in Pennsylvania for what promises to be one of the most drawn-out, intense single-state campaigns in political history.

The Globe's Sasha Issenberg notes today the two candidates campaigned across 40 states in the prior six weeks -- roughly the same amount of time they'll dedicate just to stumping in Pennsylvania before the state votes April 22. The candidates are already on the move -- Hillary and Bill Clinton are canvassing the state today.

And don't expect the candidates to play nice the whole time. Issenberg notes "the rougher local political culture in Pennsylvania will not restrain the candidates' increasingly confrontational postures, according to local consultants." This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who has ever attended a Flyers or Eagles game. Read the whole story.

Although tough talk is a part of campaigning for president, the Globe's Peter Canellos warns it is important for a candidate to set a firm chain of command and send a consistent policy message -- a strategy Barack Obama has deviated from recently.

With three advisers speaking out of turn and causing a stir -- Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and Austan Goolsbee -- Canellos writes:

Obama may have inadvertently furthered this problem by sending some of his foreign policy advisers on group tours, trying to showcase the substance and experience of his team. In the process, some of them may have forgotten that only one person should be setting foreign policy for the Obama campaign, and that person is Barack Obama.

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