Grinnell, Iowa
Interesting post on Hillary Clinton from Rich Lowry over at The Corner. He writes:
Extraordinary. She's lost some altitude nationally, and a little ground in Iowa where it's always been a pretty close race, so nothing seems to suggest a need to break the glass - as in 'break the glass in case of emergency.' But there's broken glass scattered over the place and she's taking the fire ax to Obama's campaign. What does the Clinton campaign know about this race that we don't?
Good question. I'd guess that their polling in Iowa shows her slipping more than the 4 points reflected in the latest Iowa poll, with all sorts of trouble in sub-questions (likability, trust, etc.).
What's interesting about Clinton's flailing is that people here seem to have noticed that she seems desperate. In a handful of conversations with Iowans (mostly Democrats) over the past couple of days, several people have raised Clinton's attacks on Barack Obama without prompting from me. Their collective take is that such a turn of events was predictable. We're talking about the Clintons, after all. My sense is that her behavior is feeding the wariness Iowans have about Hillary far more than it is affecting their views of Obama. (All of that said, she avoided making attacks on Obama during yesterday's debate. I think this politeness had much more to do with the format - on radio, in the soft tones of NPR - than it did with any change of strategy.)
One difference with Rich. He writes: "What's fascinating is how all the roles have reversed in the race: Clinton who was above responding in kind to attacks is now throwing the kitchen sink at Obama; Obama who had been attacking Hillary is trying to adopt something of her above-it-all attitude toward the fray; Edwards who had launched the harshest attacks on Hillary is getting out of the way of the Clinton-Obama feud."
I don't think Obama ever really attacked Hillary. We had story after story previewing the coming attacks on Hillary from Obama, but each time his criticism was civil, almost tepid. In fact, I'd argue that Obama's relative restraint makes these attacks from Hillary seem more egregious than they would otherwise. They seem almost unprovoked.
