Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Clinton Getting Desperate?

After the release of the most recent poll which shows Obama tied or leading Clinton in New Hampshire along with Iowa as discussed in an earlier post discussed today it seems that the Clinton Camp is no looking for any way possible to stop Obama's sudden rise to the top. As reported by the Washington Post today, Bill Shaheen a top NH Clinton Rep was quoted saying

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."
Although the Clinton Camp was quick to respond in this story by the AP

"Senator Clinton is out every day talking about the issues that matter to the American people. These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way," spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said.
Ofcourse the Obama camp thinks completely differently on the whole discussion:
"Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the fun part of this campaign, and now she's moved from Barack Obama's kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls. Senator Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he's talked about the lessons he's learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people."
I think what you are seeing here in this whole case is the Clinton Camps worst nightmare. Clinton was comfortable in the early lead and it seemed that Obama's big message was not resonating with voters in the early states. Although Clintons lead remains strong in National Polls the recent slip ups in Iowa and New Hampshire are of big concern and the only challenge she can really provide is on experience. The voters seem to be choosing the voice of change and hope over the voice of experience and the Clinton campaign really have no way to fight back Obama.

Obama has written several books in which he has pretty much put out on the table all the poor decisions he has made in his life and how he has learned probably one of the smartest moves he made in his move to run for President, even the republicans seem to only have one attack on Obama for his lack of experience and that just doesn't seem to be enough for voters. These negative campaign tactics Shaheen is using is not a sign of how Hillary runs her campaign but really more an expression of the real feeling of concern that exists within the internal ranks of her campaign.

Slip ups seem to be happening across the board for the Clinton camp and as things seem to be getting heated up the exchange will be interesting in the upcoming democratic debate at 2pm EST on CNN in Iowa. Will they be cowards like our republican friends or make a true spectacle?

We shall all see...

Varun

No comments: