Once glossy, Clinton bid losing luster
By Peter Nicholas

Los Angeles Times




CHARLES KRUPA / AP

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama answer a 
question simultaneously during a June debate. Clinton's campaign message has 
not been as in sync of late.





Hillary Clinton drops in some polls.



WASHINGTON — She was a disciplined candidate atop a polished campaign, but 
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is mired in the most serious crisis of her 
11-month bid for the White House, as a rolling series of missteps threatens 
to topple her as the Democratic front-runner.

The large crowds that once came to see her have thinned. Trusted campaign 
surrogates have veered wildly off message. And a campaign operation that had 
built seemingly impregnable leads over the summer appears to be faltering, 
prompting former President Clinton to amp up his role as a public spokesman 
and campaign adviser.

Hillary Clinton's chief rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has wiped out her 
lead in the crucial early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, according to 
some polls. Should she lose those states, gone would be the notion that she 
is the party's inevitable nominee, one basis of her appeal as a candidate.

Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey plans to publicly endorse Clinton this week. 
But he said the momentum might belong to Obama. Kerrey spoke about the 
"phenomenal pride" black voters felt when Obama made joint appearances last 
weekend with Oprah Winfrey.

Obama, Kerrey said, has "either peaked, or he is on a trend line that is 
going to make him the nominee of the party."

In Hillaryland, as her team calls itself, the message is that there is no 
cause for worry.

"Politics now is a 24/7 cycle. You go up, you go down," Clinton said in Iowa 
on Friday. "I think that's all part of a vigorous, dynamic election cycle."

Her campaign Friday began airing a 30-second television ad in Iowa and New 
Hampshire that showcases Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, and her 88-year-old 
mother, Dorothy Rodham, in an effort to strengthen her connection to female 
voters. A Des Moines Register poll published this month showed that Obama 
had topped Clinton among women likely to vote in the Jan. 3 caucus.

Also Friday, Clinton's husband sent out a fundraising letter that sought to 
debunk perceptions that the New York senator would not be a catalyst for 
change if she were to win the White House.

More and more, her message is being overwhelmed by unforeseen events. On 
Thursday morning, she was forced to apologize to Obama on the tarmac of 
Reagan National Airport as they were leaving for a Democratic debate in 
Iowa. At issue were the remarks of a New Hampshire campaign adviser, Bill 
Shaheen, who made public his concerns about Obama's admitted drug use as a 
young man. Shaheen quit the campaign later in the day.

The episode followed two instances of volunteer aides to the Clinton 
campaign forwarding e-mails falsely claiming Obama to be a Muslim. Both 
aides resigned.

Just as confounding to some was Clinton's attack on Obama's character. As 
recently as November, she had said at a dinner for Democratic activists in 
Des Moines that she was "not interested in attacking my opponents." But Dec. 
2, in Cedar Rapids, she accused Obama of hypocrisy by preaching ethics and 
then "skirting" campaign-finance rules in the way he doles out funds.



The same day, her campaign — eager to rebut Obama's assertion that the 
presidency had not been a consuming ambition in his life — cited, among 
other things, an essay he had written in kindergarten titled, "I Want to 
Become President."

The ploy boomeranged. Embarrassed by pointing to an opponent's childhood 
writing, the Clinton campaign said it had been joking. But the news release 
remains on her Web site.

At the same time, after months of sometimes struggling, Obama is showing a 
new confidence. "A month ago, I was an idiot. This month, I'm a genius," 
Obama said on Friday, addressing the shift in sentiment about his prospects 
of beating Clinton in Iowa and holding her off in New Hampshire and other 
states.

His campaign is brimming with new confidence: His speeches are crisper, his 
poise is more consistent and many supporters said they no longer have to 
rely upon a leap of faith to envision him winning the nomination.

For much of the campaign, Clinton delivered a positive message that seemed 
to be resonating. Trouble began with her performance at an Oct. 30 debate in 
Philadelphia, when she waffled on several questions, among them whether she 
favored driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Her rivals, sensing an opening, became more aggressive. Clinton soon felt 
she needed to strike back but has struggled to find the right tone.

Not only has Obama weathered the attacks, he is using them to raise money. 
In a solicitation letter Thursday, his campaign manager asked for $25 
donations, writing: "The only way to stop these kinds of tired, desperate 
attacks is to demonstrate very clearly that they have a real cost to Senator 
Clinton's campaign."

Robert Reich, a Cabinet member in Bill Clinton's administration who has not 
endorsed a candidate, said it is a mistake for Hillary Clinton to swipe at 
rivals.

"It's a very risky strategy for her," Reich said. "I wish it weren't the 
case that in addition to everything else, women candidates — like women in 
society generally — are judged more harshly than men when they go on the 
attack. "

With the race tightening, Bill Clinton re-entered the picture last week, 
determined to address an issue that seems to have dogged his wife from the 
beginning.

Surveys confirm voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction, a 
call for change that plays to Obama's strength. Hillary Clinton rates higher 
when it comes to "experience," but polling has shown more voters in Iowa 
would prefer a candidate who can set the country on a new path.

Bill Clinton's mission in a series of campaign stops in Iowa on Monday was 
nothing short of redefining his wife. Seven times in the course of a speech 
at Iowa State University, he called Hillary Clinton a "change agent."

But Friday night, a red-faced Bill Clinton sparked a new feud in an 
interview on Charlie Rose's show, calling Obama little more than a TV 
"commentator" and saying reporters covering Obama were so starry-eyed they 
behaved like stenographers and didn't probe his history.

"I am old-fashioned. I think a president ought to have done something" 
before being elected, he said. At one point, Rose said Clinton staffers were 
in the control booth trying to cut off the interview.

On Saturday, Obama pulled out a piece of paper and began reading aloud after 
he was asked about the former president's broadside.

" 'The same, old experience is irrelevant, you've got the right kind of 
experience or the wrong kind of experience,' " he read. " 'And mine is 
rooted in the real lives of real people.' That was Bill Clinton in 1992."

Popular as he is among Democrats, the former president has created a 
separate problem. On the campaign trail, he likes talking about himself. The 
Iowa State stop was no exception. He touted his wife but also gushed about 
his plans to help create "thousands of new jobs" in New York by retrofitting 
public housing.

He is a magnet for crowds, though, something the campaign can use.

At a Des Moines high-school visit Dec. 7, Clinton introduced an important 
woman in her own life: her mother. But the crowd was thin. Before the event 
began, Clinton aides were seen removing metal folding chairs from the school 
cafeteria so the cameras would not pan a row of empty seats.

Material from The New York Times and Newsday is included in this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company


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