CBS/From the Road: Clinton's decline seems inexorable

[BeyondGeography]

Obama Watches as Clinton Stumbles

==Barack Obama's campaign is sitting back and watching.

Yes, he is campaigning tirelessly across Iowa. Five events per day. Part of a bus tour that takes him from the Mississippi to the Missouri. The crowds are friendly and Obama is "on."

But you can tell from talking to his aides that something else is vying for their attention and it's no secret. The decline and possible fall of Hillary Clinton's campaign is riveting to journalists so you can imagine how closely it is being watched by her rivals here and in New Hampshire. They relish it.

Even though she had a glimmer of good news by receiving the Des Moines Register's endorsement last night, the polls are not good for the Clinton campaign. Her decline seems inexorable at what is surely a critical point in this campaign. And one could argue that a ham-handed counter-offensive has not helped. At all.

...There is a skip in Obama's step now, and it's not just because he is drawing the biggest crowds of the campaign, with a little help from his friend Oprah.

But he keeps his head down and plows through the same speech in town after town. He looks like he enjoys himself. He's not making much news and that's okay. Because right now, there is no need to do much more.

There is an old political adage that says, "When your opponent is committing political suicide, just get out of the way." For now, at least, Barack Obama seems to be doing just that.==

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/12/16/politics/fromtheroad/entry3623531.shtml

[babylonsister]

1. Stand by for the Oprah/Obama bashers. You know they're on the way. nt

[BeyondGeography]

2. Just a note of cheer to brighten their day

[Nedsdag]

11. I know, but we can take it.

It's the Hillbots who are thin skinned.

[joeybee12]

13. That reply is nominated for a DU-zzy!

It's so freaking funny!

[Red Zelda]

3. Please go away, HRC

...take Bill, the Bushes and the m$m with you. It's a new day.

[aquart]

6. Tired meme again. So tired. You're eyelids are closing....

It's always interesting to see how many people can be hypnotized into repeating rightwing propaganda.

[Red Zelda]

10. "You're eyelids are closing"

That's "your," genius. Think much?

[aquart]

4. The media wants Hillary to be the candidate!

Yeah, that's what they're doing, all right.

So, now that Obama is the media anointed one, are we going to hear that we shouldn't vote for him because he's the corporate choice?

Didn't think so.

[theoldman]

5. I do not think that Clinton is committing political suicide.

Some things are just catching up with her. The Republicans hate her more than they hate her husband. Many Democrats may not hate her but they fear that she is not electable. Her support has come from people high up in the Democrat party, not the average voter.

[aquart]

7. Show me the statistics on that opinion, please.

Got a link to a fact?

Repeating: WE DO NOT NEED A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE. NOT ONE.

72 million registered Democrats
55 million registered Republicans
42 million registered independents.

If people would stop lying about electability for ten minutes, you'd notice that all the Democrats require for our candidate is 13 million independent votes. The Republicans require 30 million.

THE PARTIES ARE NOT EQUAL IN NUMBER.

[Fovea]

16. Someday, it may be that simple.

But there are of course, other factors to consider for this current cycle.

Which person so far seems better suited to beat Karl Rove and Frank Luntz in a broken bottle fight, for example? Her gang is showing a disturbing tendency to punch when they should block.

Hint. You slip and slap Barak, you smash Karl Rove with a brick.

[knight_of_the_star]

17. That would work only if the following assumptions are true

1.) All Dems vote in a solid block AND all Dems will vote

and

2.) the president was elected based on national popular vote.

Since one is certainly not true as in the past we have lost Dem votes to the GOP before (see Ray-Gun as a prime example, there were also some who did with Bush unfortunately) as well as that it is big news when this country breaks 50% turnout and we still have the electoral college your argument doesn't work.

[Zueda]

19. A candidate like Huckabee would take independents from

Hillary like taking candy from a baby.

[Fovea]

15. Correct

and if she fails, it weakens the centrist, third way approach. Sure, if that does happen they will personalize it, gender-card it, even trivialize it.

But what they cannot do is show that it was not simply her personality, or the right wing pundocracy. They will not be able to duck the fact that on international relations, the economy, healthcare, and other issues, her message is not appealing to the Democratic party base.

06 was not about letting donkeys sidle up to the corporate pig trough. Several of our leaders, Hillary included seem to not have gotten the actual mandate firmly fixed in their heads.

[tex-wyo-dem]

18. I agree that those high up in the...

Democratic party have primarily thrown their support behind her, but most of her initial support among the voters has come from pure name-recognition alone. As the people have started to get more familiar with her message, however, they've begun to consider and support other candidates.

[marylanddem]

8. The Clintons are increasingly boring - yesterday's news

Obama is bright, witty, authentic - AND electable.

[aquart]

9. Boring? Gosh, that's what they said about Gore.

If you're resorting to that crap, you must still be scared.

[Zueda]

20. Not sure... but I don't think they meant boring as in uninteresting...

most likely meant to say the Clinton era is 'tired and busted'.

on edit: sort of like Britney Spears or the FOXification of certain stories like Natalie Hollaway.

[Perry Logan]

12. Verily, the Mainstream Media casteth up, the Mainstream Media casteth down.

[MethuenProgressive]

14. "There is a skip in Obama's step now"? Donnie McClurkin can cure that.

:rofl: at ObamaNation

[creeksneakers2]

21. It looks like Hillary stopped slipping

She's back up to 40% in the Rasmussen, up from a low of 33%. She's still neck and neck or even behind in a few of the early primary states, but she's way out front nationally. Her numbers stopped dropping a week ago. Its very possible that a short term improvement in Obama's position was over analyzed to look like the start of a giant swing.

The media loves the story about Hillary collapsing so much that they couldn't wait for it to actually happen.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. If You Follow The Stock Market

Once an economic phenomenon reaches the front page of the newspaper or a magazine it'a almost at it's peak... Right before the stock market took off in 1982 ( It was essentially in the same place in 1982 that it was in 1966!!!) there were articles that the stock market was dead and it would be best to invest in gold, real estate; anything but stocks... Well, the market has been on a twenty six year run since then...

I wouldn't be surprised if the same phenomenon is at play now... "Buy on the rumor, sell on the news"
...

We will learn in the fullness of time if my observations are prescient or not...