Beginning Of The Fall?
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Alleged Swiftboating | Democrats | The Clintons — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
There may well be panic afoot in the Clinton campaign at this news:
Senator Hillary Clinton's lead in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary has fallen to its lowest level of the season.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone poll of the state's Likely Primary Voters shows Clinton leading Senator Barack Obama by ten percentage points, 34% to 24%. Former Senator John Edwards attracts 15% of the vote while New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson earns 8%. No other candidate tops the 3% level of support. (see crosstabs)
At 34%, Clinton's current level of support is the lowest measured in any Rasmussen Reports poll this year. Four previous polls in New Hampshire found her consistently in the 37% to 40% range.
This is the first poll of the race conducted since Senator Hillary Clinton's debate gaffe concerning drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. In the last poll before that debate, Clinton held a sixteen-point advantage over Obama. A month earlier, Clinton was ahead by twenty-three percentage points.
The current poll also shows that Clinton's favorability ratings have dropped. Among New Hampshire's Likely Voters, 72% now offer a positive assessment of the frontrunner. That's down from 81% prior to the debate. Obama is viewed favorably by 82%, Edwards by 76%.
Perhaps this is why the counterattacks are getting a little desperate:
Bill Clinton's suggestion that his wife faced a Republican-style "Swift boat" attack during and after the last Democratic debate drew a rebuke yesterday from Senator Barack Obama, who said, "I was pretty stunned by that statement."
The comments by the former president, at a postal workers' convention in Nevada on Monday, came as he discussed efforts by the moderators and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals at the debate on Oct. 30 to get Mrs. Clinton to give a quick and clear answer on the issue of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
By invoking the so-called "Swift boat" advertisements of the 2004 presidential campaign, Mr. Clinton was calling to mind one of the most divisive episodes of that campaign, when the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry, saw his Vietnam War record questioned by a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
"We listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff," Mr. Clinton said, "and when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift boat ad was run against Senator Kerry."
"Why am I saying this?" he continued. "Because I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again."
Mr. Obama, in an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, said the former president was reaching in linking criticism of Mrs. Clinton to the Swift boat advertisements.
"How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach," Mr. Obama said.
To say the least. The Clinton campaign's glass jaw is looking especially fragile these days. No wonder the other Democratic candidates can't resist punching it.
Beginning Of The Fall? 9 Comments (0 topical, 9 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
of Shillary the wheels are definately coming of the bus.....oh how I love the upcoming season of politics as all will take on all with the hatefulness that only politics can bring....ho ho ho.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
The reason she has been ahead in all the early polls is because her last name is Clinton. It was only a matter of time before the voting public got a peak at the real Hillary, and what they saw was a weak candidate who panders to every group and everyone. I predict that she will still get the nomination but that she will loose the general election big time.
She is all packaging and no substance.
But he had a gift. He is arguably one of the best public speakers around. He can give a speech detailing his beliefs and get you saying "Yes, right let's do it!". Then turn around the next day, give a speech to a different group that says the exact oposite of what he told you and get the same reaction from that group. Then give an answer to an interviewer that questions him of "That's not what I said, listen to what I said." give a 3rd version and seem like he truely believed that version too.
He wasn't called "Slick Willie" for nothing....
Hillary, on the other hand, doesn't have this gift.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Bill has a likability factor. Even if you disagree with him, you could picture yourself sitting down and having a beer with him and enjoying the chat.
Hillary on the other hand, gives most people the creeps. She comes across as being completely fake and cold. I like how my mom put it after seeing some local staged Hillary photo-op with some kids: "If there wasn't a camera there, she wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire."
No second chance to desecrate the Oval Office, the Missus can't pull off a "pretty in pink" charade against hungry Democratic opponents. Her instabilities are more obvious than yours and her tenuous grip on reality is starting to slip too early in the game.
It could turn out to be a very long and tough year as the lady crumbles. Watch out for flying lamps and left hooks and remember, there's a limit to whining.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
... by the time the primaries begin (just two months, at this rate), the MSM will be telling us about Hillary's "brilliant strategic comeback," and the debate debacle will be old news. The whole Clinton universe seems to be based on failing upward.
We should not be cheering Mrs. Clinton faltering here. We WANT to face her in the general election, people. She is by far the easiest to beat.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
Gallup, AP and WSJ found no negative post-debate effect for Clinton when it comes to the primary. Her lead over Obama was 21% in October. Now it's 23%.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iP6aoeuUCqIEo5DHDOCMLHyUOCpgD8SPJAG80
I think the alleged implosion is exaggerated.
We need her to hang on and win this nomination, heh.