Monday, November 12, 2007

The Clinton implosion continues

DES MOINES - Where did Hillary Clinton's mojo go?

That's what her campaign has to be asking after a rough two weeks. And more importantly, they have to be wondering how to recapture that fading aura of an unstoppable juggernaut.

Top Clinton strategist Mark Penn doesn't own up to his candidate suffering a dip, but he admits it's been tougher of late.

"The opponents went negative, and that created a new dynamic and a different set of headlines," Penn said.

The new dynamic emerged at the debate in Philadelphia two weeks ago, but didn't just spring from sharp criticism by her opponents. Clinton stumbled by offering fuzzy answers to some questions and refusing to take a stance on Gov. Spitzer's license plan for illegal immigrants.

Then Camp Clinton's damage control backfired as she was pounded for suggesting the "boys" ganged up on her. And Bill Clinton brought more scorn when he said the attempt to get an answer out of his wife on licenses verged on John Kerry Swift Boat territory.

Now Penn and company plan to stick to the high road, talking about Clinton's strength, experience and vision for America, fund-raising at a torrid rate and deploying Bill Clinton more.

The problem for them is that the Clintons are doing everything they can to hide the actual records of Hillary's "experience" in the White House. Her "strength" was best shown in managing "bimbo eruptions" by bullying and slandering her husband's victims and her "vision for America" is the reason that she had to rave incoherently in response to a simple question about giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens.

Her "vision for America" is something she desperately needs to conceal because what she calls a "vision" most of the rest of us call a nightmare.