How Close Does Hillary Think Iowa Could Be? This Close

Talk about lowering expectations. From Hillary Clinton's campaign email today soliciting last-ditch contributions before the December 31st deadline:

We're in a crucial hour-by-hour countdown in Iowa and New Hampshire. Dedicated campaign volunteers are braving the elements to make sure they reach that one more person who could make all the difference in a close contest. Chores are piling up as people set aside their busy personal lives to devote themselves to crucial campaign tasks.

This is the moment that matters. Every day, every hour, and every dollar counts. I'm working as hard as I can, and I need your help to win the nomination. (emphasis added)

Wow. Not quite the language of inevitability — and even if that was a meme seized on and pushed by the media, it was certainly encouraged by her campaign (and certainly no one told Hillary to serenely declare to Katie Couric that "it will be me"). With Iowa clearly anyone's game — especially with Edwards barreling up the middle — word has gone out from her campaign to lower expectations and the new message is now about the urgent drive for support — every bit counts, in dollars and caucus-goers, with all the campaigns reaching out to first-time caucus-goers in the hopes of tipping the balance. A recent poll has her leading but that poll was conducted from Dec. 20 - 23rd which, frankly, makes it already out of date. Iowa is a landscape shifting hourly, with every event on the jam-packed campaign schedules, and a lot can happen in a week (especially on a landscape like Iowa's, which happens to be very snowy of late, resulting in, we hear, all sorts of cancellations in said jam-packed schedules). The upshot: No one can really say, so, with eight days to go, who knows, one more person may really make that difference. What a way to pick a president!