I Feel Her Pain

Apparently Hillary didn't do very well in the New Hampshire debate. I didn't see it, but I read she came across as angry. I can understand her frustration. She expected a coronation and now it looks like Obama will go 2 for 2.

Of course, it helped that Iowa and New Hampshire allow independent voters, who cut strongly for Obama. Hillary doesn't have a lot of crossover appeal.

The trouble is there's not much she can do. Sure, it was easy enough when her job was to attack Bush--he's unpopular and her voters loved it. It's not so easy to attack Barack. It was better when she could act above the fray, but now she's gotta get down and dirty. This doesn't play that well intra-party, especially against Obama. He's sort of a teflon candidate--he's said foolish things, but they never seem to affect him. And when she goes in for the kill, it turns into a rubber and glue situation.

It was in a debate a couple months ago when Hillary's campaign first started taking on water--she couldn't give a clear answer on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. This issue doesn't even play well within her own party, much less independents, but she hemmed and hawed since she clearly liked the idea and didn't want to offend Latinos. (That Obama couldn't answer the question well a week later, after all that warning, didn't matter--teflon.) It was the first indication she was vulnerable. And now, in her latest debate, she's flailing.

Adding to her frustration must be that she realizes there aren't any crucial differences between her and Obama, but now his act is playing better than hers. That wasn't part of the game plan.

If she can pull off a victory in New Hampshire, though this is increasingly unlikely, she's back on track. If not, she'll have to go Giuliani and hope that her organizational strengths and general appeal will play well in big Februrary 5th states such as New York and Calfornia. But even as she leads in national polls, once the voters have to concentrate, if she can't show something special, what's to keep them from going with a charming winner?