This is a tale of two campaigns going in different directions.

On the heels of his hat trick yesterday in Louisiana, Washington and Nebraska Barack Obama made it a perfect weekend with a convincing win in the Maine caucus:

Obama: 59%
Clinton: 41%

The Clinton campaign can continue claiming that these Obama victories were "expected" but that doesn't diminish the fact that he is pulling ahead in the pledged delegate count:

Obama: 943
Clinton: 856

Note this count doesn't include superdelegates. More and more analysts are saying that the superdelegates will be unlikely to overturn the choice made by the voters and I agree. It would be sheer folly for the superdelegates to hand the nomination to the candidate who receives a minority of the delgates chosen by the primaries and caucuses.

The Clinton campaign did mount a substantial effort in Maine:

Though Maine's delegate count is small, Clinton and Obama, along with surrogates, came to the state Saturday as their campaigns drew tighter after Super Tuesday.

Thousands of people packed the Bangor Auditorium to hear Obama on Saturday and hundreds more who weren't allowed inside greeted him as he arrived. People also were stopped at the door as Clinton held a town hall-style gathering nearby at the University of Maine at Orono. She later stopped in Lewiston.

Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, and husband, Bill, also visited, while Obama supporter Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts campaigned in two cities in the days before the vote.

Both campaigns hit Maine heavily with radio and TV advertising, and voters' homes were being called with pre-taped messages in support of both candidates. On Sunday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, were scheduled to visit Maine caucuses on Obama's behalf.

The Clinton effort in Maine feel far short and now she's shaking up her campaign staff:

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams on Sunday, engineering a shake-up in a presidential campaign struggling to overcome rival Sen. Barack Obama's financial and political strengths.

Astonishingly, the Clinton campaign is trying to recast Hillary as the underdog and Obama as the "establishment" candidate:

This week, Clinton and her advisers declared that Obama is the "establishment" candidate. When chief strategist Mark Penn explained the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday results to reporters Wednesday, he said, "We went through 10 days of wall-to-wall coverage of Sen. Obama and his establishment campaign, of big endorsements, money, ads on the Super Bowl. And Hillary Clinton again bounced back."

And the candidate herself said of Obama's Super Tuesday performance, "Well, he sure had a lot of establishment support yesterday, and I feel very good about the results."

Ironically, Obama, as the "establishment" candidate, is trailing in the superdelegate count which, for all intents and purposes, is the Democratic party establishment:

Clinton: 224
Obama: 135

Funny how that works isn't it?

And now, the Clinton campaign is lowering expectations for Tuesday's Potomac primary of Maryland, Virginia and DC. At the same time I am sure they will put everything they can into winning Virginia where they should have a fighting chance. Hillary can't afford to do nothing until the March Ohio and Texas contests while Obama keeps rolling up win after win. She's got to do something fast.