Clinton Campaign Looking Ahead to March 15 Contests

"Even in a scenario where Sen. Sanders wins all three of the states he's targeting in the Midwest Ohio, Illinois and Missouri we would still expect to win significantly more delegates on March 15, based not only on our strong showing in those same three states, but on our performance in the very delegate rich states of Florida and North Carolina, where we feel we are in a strong position," he said.

"That's why on the night of March 15, we are certain that we will add to our already commanding pledged delegate lead, and that we will be a significant step closer to securing the nomination."

This brought Mook back to the loss Michigan, which several of the reporters speaking with him attempted to dissect.

"We are in a contest not only to establish a delegate lead, but to build on that delegate lead, and in that regard, last night was a success," he said.

"Sen. Sanders is running a strategy to win individual states. He has been targeting selected states in each round of contests. Our contention is that that is not a strategy to ultimately win the nomination, that is a strategy ... [simply] to win certain state contests," he said.

Looking ahead to next week, Mook said "the game plan we are going to have is the same one we've had in every state we've competed in so far."

"Sec. Clinton is going to work as hard as she can to go out and win every vote. She is going to build on the work that she did in Mississippi and Michigan and the Super Tuesday states, and continue to lay out a specific plan to create more good-paying jobs in this country," he said.

"That's a powerful message and one that we've already seen voters are especially receptive to ... and so far, she's the only candidate in this race that's laid out a specific plan."

"We will continue to amplify that and communicate that and campaign as hard as we can," he said.

Asked in the Clinton time underestimated the field organization and ground effort of the Sanders campaign in Michigan, Mook rejected the assertion.

"I think it's a little bit of a fool's errand to try to assess the ground game," he said. "We went all in in Michigan, just like we're going all in in all five states on March 15. We had staff and offices on the ground for some time ..."

Switching gears and trying for a different tact, Mook noted that Sanders once boasted of having 200 staff on the ground in South Carolina.

"He mocked our program there are insufficient, and I think everybody would agree that our victory there was nothing short of a blowout," he said.

"That's why I believe getting into this routine of comparing number of staff and the number of offices a particular campaign opens in a state is not valuable," Mook continued. "We built a strategy to achieve the objectives that we believed we needed to win. That included an aggressive ground game. We are proud of the ground game in Michigan, just like we are of the ground game we had in South Carolina, Nevada, Iowa and other places."

Pressed on Michigan and what the outcome might portend for the future, Mook said, "Obviously we would have liked to have gotten a few extra points last night."

"But that just means, from our perspective, that we are going to have to work even harder to amplify Sec. Clinton's economic argument. In states like Illinois, Ohio and Missouri, her message is of bringing more advanced manufacturing to these states, of installing 500,000 solar panels in her first time ... that's the kind of forward-looking job creation message that voters are looking for ... so we are aligning this campaign to amplify that message as loudly and as clearly as we can nationally, and across those states."

Mook also rejected any kind of framing of the Michigan results as a referendum on fixes that might have to be made before the general election and a possible showdown with Donald Trump.

"It's premature to be thinking about anything regarding Donald Trump or the general election at all," he said. "And I would caution against reading anything into primary elections vis-a-vis the general election. I ran then-Sen. Clinton's Ohio campaign in 2008, and we won by nine points and later then-Sen. Obama went on to win Ohio in the general election. So you can't really make comparison between what happens in a primary and what's going to happen in a general election."

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