The much praised, on-the-ground organization of Barack Obama’s presidential campagin came calling on Thursday.

“Hello, this is Michelle Obama,” the recorded message said on my home phone. I didn’t take the call, but my 13-year-old daugther did, and after pressing “1” for yes to a couple of questions, (including the key question as to if she supported Obama’s candidacy), she hung up when questions about health care proved a little too complex for a teen who watches more Disney than CNN.

My daughter is obviously too young to vote, but her mother isn’t, and the daughter pushed “1” for yes because the mother is one woman who has ditched Hillary for Obama, and plans to vote that way on March 4 in the Texas primary. I’m guessing the Clinton campaign has similar calls going out in these parts, although my family hasn’t gotten one yet despite our usual Democratic Party leanings, (full disclosure: I voted for George W in the 2000 prez campaign and have voted for Sen. Kay Bailey as well).

Still, after reading many an article on how the Obama campaign has out-organized and outworked the Clinton campaign in nearly every state thus far, it’s not surprising my household would hear first from Barack. Indeed, it is rather amazing how a first time U.S. senator has appeared to outsmart and organize the Clintons in running a far more sound and solid presidential campaign.

Hillary keeps telling us she’s ready to be president from day one, but she appears to be having serious troubles running her national campaign for president. Clinton hasn’t been competitive in a number of states, including the most recent trouncings she absored from Obama in Maryland and Virginia. Obama has raised far more money than the Clintons, a truly astounding fact when you consider that Bill Clinton is the biggest Dem fundraiser around. Obama has also avoided the sort of crisises that have troubled not only the Hillary campaign, but the one of GOP nominee John McCain as well.

So, the guy with supposedly no experience, has been a far better CEO of his presidential campaign than have the far older candidacies fronted by Hillary and McCain. Maybe that doesn’t mean much, but then again, there’s voters like my spouse who asked the other day: “If they can’t run a presidential campaign well, how are they going to run the country?”

Back to our part of the country, I read a Newsweek article online this week where mega-rich McAllen developer Alonzo Cantu, a close bud of the Clintons, chided Obama for knowing nothing about the border, and for his lack of visits here. The Clintons, he said, have been to the Rio Grande Valley many times. True, Alonzo, but where exactly have they been? Have Bill and Hill seen much of the Valley beyond the inside of your mansion in north McAllen where you and your wealthy friends raise scads of dough for the Clintons.

Look, good for Cantu that he has earned the fortune he has amassed from modest beginnings, and he now owns more banks and hospitals than the little guy with the cute hat in the Monopoly game. But to portray the Clintons as the man and woman of the people in the Valley? Por favor. They’ve just come here for the dough, but now that they need the votes of Valley people, Hillary is coming back to our neck of the mesquite woods for a stadium rally in McAllen next week so Tia Juana and young professional Hispanic women named Ashley and Brittney can jump up and down with their Hillary! campaign signs.

That’s cool, nothing wrong it at all. Hillary will carry the Valley, that’s for sure. She better. A new statewide poll shows Clinton with only a single-digit lead in Texas over Obama. Better get Hillary back before Michelle makes too many more phone callls.