Sen Clinton’s team has launched a full court press to shame Barack Obama into agree to a series of one-on-one debates in the run-up to March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas.

Clinton’s campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle sent a letter to her counterpart David Plouffe with the Obama campaign, saying she was “disappointed” that Obama rejected doing more debates. “I think we can do better and so does Hillary,” she wrote.

And in a series of daily talking points for surrogates and supporters on the topic, the campaign says Obama “has refused to join Hillary in Ohio for a conversation about making a difference in people’s lives.” The campaign is tying Obama’s refusal to electability, saying “candidates that aren’t ready to debate Hillary one-on-one aren’t ready to debate Sen. McCain.”

Stories that she’s low on funds — loaning her campaign $5 million from the Clinton family’s personal fortune and asking senior staff to go without pay — have fueled speculation that the hefty debate schedule is devised to give her free media appearances in these important, and sometimes expensive, TV markets.

Obama has said he won’t allow the Clinton campaign to dictate his schedule, but the campaign says they will make a decision regarding debates very soon.

Read the campaign’s letter and talking points after the break.

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At a press availability in Chicago today, Senator Barack Obama, the self-described perpetual underdog admitted he has some momentum. The campaign claims to have won more states and more delegates than Senator Clinton, and is expected to do well in upcoming races.

But the candidate still lowers expectations by continually referring to himself as the underdog in this campaign because Hillary Clinton has more establishment support and name recognition. When a reporter questioned him on the legitimacy of such a moniker, he hedged. Check out the exchange here, plus his response as to how long this fight for the nomination will go on.

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Senator Obama was also asked if he would participate in the four debates Hillary Clinton has accepted (including one on FOX News). He didn’t commit, but responded that the campaign is “still trying to sort through our schedule.”

“We benefit from being on the ground talking to voters directly” and “not using up so much time preparing for debates,” he added. When pressed, Obama said he was sure “we will accept at least one.”

Fox has confirmed that Senator Clinton loaned herself $5 million from her personal fortune to offset being massively outraised (and outspent in most states) by her rival Barack Obama. Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe — himself a prodigious fundraiser — has said the Clinton camp raised $13.5m in January, compared with a whopping $32m for Obama.

In a statement, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson says “Late last month Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million. The loan illustrates Sen. Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web today and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.”

Obama survived the lean summer months of lackluster poll numbers with big fundraising windfalls from donors; with the delegate count next to even and a big fundraising edge forcing Clinton to scramble to kick in her own cash, it’s hard to buy the Obama spin that she’s still the frontrunner.

UPDATE: Clinton herself just told reporters that she did in fact loan the campaign $5m from her own money. “We had a great month in January,” she said, “but my opponent was able to raise more money, and we intended to be competitive, and we were, and I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment.”

UPDATE 2: Major Garrett confirms that top staffers including campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle are going without pay to save the campaign money. There may be some relief on the horizon: spokesman Phil Singer emailed out a press report claiming that the campaign has raised more than $3 million online in the 24 hours since Feb 5; of course, Obama’s campaign raised $5m online in the same span.

The Obama campaign just sent out a pair of emails that Senator Obama won a “clear majority of Super Tuesday states” at 13, and that their candidate has won more delegates than Clinton in today’s 22 contests. That is why their victory is “crystal clear” as Senior Advisor told a gaggle of reporters following Obama’s Super Tuesday speech.

Listen to Axelrod on Clinton’s prediction weeks ago that the nomination would be sewn up tonight, on what the American people should take away from today’s results, and on their “victory.”

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It must be a bizarre thing to give a victory speech when you’ve lost more states than you’ve won (at least so far, though the big enchilada of California is still out there). But that’s what Hillary Clinton just did in New York — where she did bring home a solid victory.

She spent much of the time giving her stump speech, talking about the America she sees — one with health care for all and no war in Iraq. But she also talked about fighting to keep the Republicans out of the White House, saying “I won’t let anyone swift boat this country’s future.”

And she congratulated Barack Obama for his victories, saying she looks forward to continuing the campaign and the debate over how to fix the country’s problems.

It was a subdued speech, different than her tone in previous victory speeches in NH and NV — perhaps because she’s had a cough and voice problems for the last several days, which her advisers chalk up to non-stop campaigning.

Catch the highlights here:

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On a conference call with reporters, Campaign Manager David Plouffe estimates that so far Obama is up 606 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 534 (2,025 are needed to secure the nomination).

“This is a very strong night for us,” Plouffe said. “The fact that we may come out of here with a draw or maybe even a little bit better than that, certainly exceeds our high threshold today, any threshold we set for ourselves and we think it sets us up really well for the next seven days.”

“We may end up winning more delegates, and again, there are still some big states to come in,” he said. California, AZ, CO, and NM have yet to report and Plouffe anticipates it will be close. “So again, a long road to travel here.”

At 11:20pm (CST), Press Secretary Bill Burton sent out the following email to reporters:

“With California not yet counted, we currently lead Clinton by 43 pledged delegates — Obama: 677 – Clinton: 634.  We came into tonight with 63 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 48 pledged delegates.”

Fox News projects that Hillary Clinton has won in Oklahoma and Tennessee; Barack Obama took Alabama and his home state of Illinois. Missouri, Connecticut, and Delaware all remain too close to call. (UPDATE: FNC decision team had AL too close to call until about 9:30)

More spin from the Clinton campaign on their victories below the fold — they say this demonstrates that Hillary Clinton can compete and win in red states.

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Barack Obama won Georgia big tonight, as expected; the first state to close its polls on this long night was called for Obama by the networks at 7pm on the dot. But Hillary Clinton’s camp says no big deal — they never devoted resources to the state, and every poll since Iowa has shown Obama up big.

In a memo to reporters outlining talking points for their surrogates, the Clinton campaign says “we have 21 states that are still outstanding where we expect to pick up a significant number of new delegate,” adding “we feel very good about the numbers that we’re seeing.”

Read the full Talking Points Memo after the jump

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Senator Clinton rallied 7,000 students and supporters in San Diego, highlighting the differences between her health care plan and Sen Obama’s.

But two student protesters nearly stole the show. They held up a big red banner directly behind Sen Clinton that read “Nepotistic Tyrant Hands Off Iran.” One waved a picture of Hillary with horns and the caption “complicit criminal.”

They silently held the sign uninterrupted for just a few minutes before two of Clinton’s burlier supporters in bright yellow union shirts confronted them. One ripped down the big red banner and started to walk away - when one student reached out to grab it back. Bad idea. The rather large union guy lurched back at him and seemed ready to come to blows before he was restrained by his friend.

The man then ripped the Hillary picture out of the other student’s hands to cheers from the crowd. As the two surly union guys returned to their seats, the two protesters were escorted out of the building by security, complaining the whole way up the stadium steps.

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A sign of things to come for this debate?

Obama started off by saying, “I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign, I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this is over.”

“We’re running a competitive race, but it’s because we both love this country,” he said. But he did get in a jab: “I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards. I think it is the past versus the future.”

And Hillary Clinton used a line she often breaks out on the stump — saying, “on January 20, 2009, the next president of the United States will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol;” but rather than saying she hopes to be that president, she included her Democratic rival. “I, as a Democrat, fervently hope you are looking at that next president,” she said. “Either Barack or I will raise our hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

Most of the first third is about health care, and is a substantive, civil debate on policy differences — and that’s most likely by design. Obama reporter Bonney Kapp says a senior Obama aide cautioned reporters that this debate would likely be less acrimonious than the previous affair in South Carolina.