It is rather unfortunate - tragic really - that Hillary has so few ideas to pitch, so little of her own vision to promote, that she's scrambling to go negative on Barack rather than go positive on herself.

She still has money
She still has as much press as she wants
She is still the only woman in the race
She still has Bill singing back-up
She is still the elephant in the room

But for the time being, her coronation has been postponed. Her "message" doesn't jive with her history, and there's no time to reinvent herself. When your message fails to resonate and you're running out of time, you have no choice but to go negative.

Obama has her right where he wants her.

8

Hillary Clinton has to be one of the worst politicians, just from a strategic standpoint. Running to the right of your opponent on an issue that more than 70% of your base disagrees with? This isn't even Rovian. Did Bush attack McCain because he wanted to cut taxes too low? Or because he was too pro-choice? I just don't understand the Clinton strategy here. Is she taking a dive? It just can't be this easy.

Obama brought out 100,000 in Iowa, what would he do elsewhere. Could the Democratic party risk ripping itself to shreds, could they risk alienating Obama, if he walks away all the young and progressive voters walk away too. And what about all the Republicans that Obama has attracted to the party, they too will turn their backs on Democrats. Here is another pitfall, Obama walks away, the Dems go into the general with Hillary and along comes the third party, right now Obama is the only candidate keeping the third party at bay, they are just waiting to see what happens.

The Clintons are hell bent on bringing Obama down even if it means bring the Democratic party down. I could see a case where the party is going to part company with the Clintons on very bad terms.

Didn’t the Supreme Court just strike down mandatory sentences about a month ago

Hillary is toast and thats ok she represents the old same old way of doing things, she won't make many changes except to her power base. . Young people are speaking out and voting and thats as it should be we need a big change, maybe the under thirty crowd can do a better job than the over fifty crowd did, they can't screw things up much worse.

Hillary-unbelievably out of touch with the vast majority of Democratic Voters.
*this* sounds like she borrowed her lead from rudy.

Harsher sentencing? Talk about a disingenuous sound byte. What does it mean? The death penalty?

Prisons do not work. They are Crime Colleges.
HRC, unfortunately, is part of the problem and not the solution, a reflection of her arguments.

The 'Right Wing' Machine has been screwing US!! We Now see ALL the Players in this Corporate Charade. Iowans showed Obama's gotten passed your Machine- we should have no probelm gettting him past their.
As usual Hillary discounts the voters and our ability to discipher bullshit when we hear it Since we've been getting the shit kicked out of US for at least the last 7 yrs- we've started on Steriods- and WE are coming back with a vengence.
Count your luck stars if you only don't get the nomination- it's possible you could face charges of collusion with the Repugs et al.

I'm seeing a lot of ridiculous posts on here blaming Hillary for a number of societal problems. Hillary Clinton is very genuine. She is just not as emotional of a speaker as the other two BS artists. And lets face it, all politicians are BS artists. They will kiss your baby one second and send your teenager to die in Iraq the next. You can fault HRC for not being the smoothest politician but dont demonize her as some fake hag when in reality her only crime is not being as convincing of an actor as Obama or Edwards.

Presidents dont need to be nice and loveable. They need to be hard working, intelligent, and resourceful. You know.. everything Bush isnt.

Thomas Edsall, this is a hit article written by you and has NO legs. I'll see to that. This is ridiculous.

Didn't Hillary stand up there at one of the debates, when asked if she considers herself a liberal, and said she was a "progressive". Now, Hillary is ragging on Obama's record for being 'progressive'?? I don't understand this woman.

I have listened to her this entire campaign and I still don't know what she genuinely stands for. If it weren't for Bill Clinton's record -- which she had NOTHING to do with -- she would have literally no record to stand on.

I just wish one candidate would ask her to explain to us what she did and what she 'changed' during those supposed 35-years of experience. I am eager to hear specific examples of her big accomplishments. Oh that's right, she had just one where she screwed it up and cost us Congress for 12 long years.

Thanks Hillary.

Dear Hillary and/or Edwards,

We can sink Obama.

Give us a ring and let's see what we can figure out.

It is unfortunate how I feel for Clinton. I don't agree at all with her position to the war. In listening to her, I think it's Clinton first and the issues she really doesn't care about. She doesn't seem sincere at all on anything. With a war going on, all you got is prison sentencing? She keeps trying to insinuate she has experience in performing Presidential functions without having to indication what she specifically did or is verifiable.

It was my understanding she was known as an excellent senator that brought people from both sides together. Yet her Presidential run seems to have a strategy of doing the opposite. The other side is evil. I don't get the feeling that Hillary is at all like her husband or has a clue internationally.

I don't see how her heath plan will work

So many people, even those who are not Obama supporters have talked about the feeling of hope that Obama gives to people. For Hillary to discount that feeling as "false hope" is a big mistake because she's telling people that their hope isn't valid.

Good grief! The woman is a true political hack! Let's hope she continues to self-destruct before the country makes yet another mistake.

I'm hoping for Edwards; but I can live with Obama. As for Hillary, if she gets nominated I won't bother to vote at all. Why, then, pretend that a vote makes a difference? I'd rather see a Republican continue to foul things up than to see a Democrat do it. Then, at least, there's some hope for the 2012 election.

I don't know why so many Republicans dislike Hillary Clinton. Out of all the Democrats running (and let's be honest, they ALL stand head and shoulders above the Republicans), Clinton is the one closest to them. You'd think the Republican voters would be supporting her.