Decision ‘08

Hillary Slumping As Obama Rises

Good commentary on ‘08 in, of all places, the Times of London:

THE first vote is still more than a year away, but the campaign to replace President George W Bush in the White House is already throwing up surprises.

Unfortunately for Senator Hillary Clinton, long the front-runner in the Democratic drive to retake the presidency, most of them are coming at her expense.

A brace of Christmas opinion polls has left Clinton with a political hangover after a year that had appeared to cement her status as the Democrats’ best-organised, best-financed and best-connected contender for her party’s presidential nomination.

Despite winning re-election to the US Senate by a handsome margin in mid-term voting last month, Clinton has had little to celebrate as polls from the presidential primary battlegrounds signalled early trouble for her historic bid to become America’s first woman president.

In Iowa, the Midwestern state that will once again open the primary season with its caucus votes on January 14, 2008, Clinton slumped to fourth place with only 10% of the vote in a survey of 600 likely Democratic voters.

In New Hampshire, which will hold the first full primary eight days later, Clinton had appeared to be cruising comfortably with a 23-point lead over her Democrat rivals — until last weekend, when a poll in the Concord Monitor newspaper showed her only one point ahead of Senator Barack Obama, the comparative political newcomer who is considering a similarly historic attempt to become America’s first black president.

Obama’s emergence as a charismatic alternative to the Democratic party’s veteran leadership — and the arrival in the race last week of former Senator John Edwards, the losing vice-presidential candidate in 2004 — have electrified Washington and placed Clinton under early pressure to abandon her cautious approach to the presidency and take to the hustings months earlier than she might have planned.

Several Democratic strategists last week urged Clinton to unleash a “charisma offensive” in the new year to counter the saturated media coverage that has helped propel Obama up the polls.

A ‘charisma offensive’? Listen, Hillary Clinton carries a number of strengths into the 2008 race, but charisma is not one of them. Let Obama have his headlines, and work on the back-end stuff like campaign staff, fundraising, and ground game - that’s my advice to Hillary…

4 Responses to “Hillary Slumping As Obama Rises”

1 The Moderate Voice » Blog Archive » Hillary Schillary Says:
December 31st, 2006 at 1:09 pm
[…] Decision 08. Posted on December 31, 2006 | Permalink | Categories Uncategorized| […]
2 Gun Toting Liberal ™ Says:
December 31st, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Money can’t buy you love (or votes), Hillary…

“Cold”, “calculating”, “dishonest”, “phony”, and even “wicked” are all adjectives often used to describe the former First Lady and current Senator Puppet from New York who is obviously tryin…
3 john cinnamond Says:
January 20th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hillary has the experience, intelligence combined with common sense, and 8 years in the white house where she had huge input and influence. It would be a disaster and disgrace to place a cigarette smoker, drug user, and one lacking the political experience needed for the office of president. Obama is a good polly parrot. However, Hillary can tell you why she wants the cracker, and even the ingredients of the cracker. I hope that the voters will awaken and see the Hollywood showtime of Obama for what it is, and consider the real, experienced candidates, namely Hillary Clinton and Senator John Edwards. The empty platitudes of Obama are just that, empty.
4 Mae Says:
February 11th, 2007 at 11:37 am
John Cinnamond,

I totally disagree with you. Hillary Clinton doesn’t really have much more experience than Barack Obama. He has spent 8 years in the Illinois Senate and will have 4 years of experience in the U. S. Senate. I think that that is plenty of experiece to be President. And, Hillary will only have 4 years of Senate experience over Obama. And, I just don’t see how that makes her much more qualified than Obama. And, Obama is strong in areas that she is not, for example, charisma and being able to relate well to the people. He projects warmth, vision, caring and sensibilities that Hillary doesn’t!