Monday, November 12, 2007
HILLARY & RUDY IN TROUBLE

While the so-called Mainstream Media (MSM) continues to salivate over a potential Hillary-Rudy general election match-up next year, they - as usual - are missing the real story of the race:

It is quite likely neither of them will be their party’s nominee next year.

Let us examine the State of the Race as of today:

1) The Democratic Race: Hillary had nine months of almost-constant positive press. Since she began the campaign in February, the MSM has fawned over this supposedly-smartest woman in the world. While Barack Obama and John Edwards faded away a bit, she was afforded non-stop softball coverage.

But now that has changed; he run of good press has reversed. She is now headed into a vortex of negative stories that feed into one another. First came her inability to take a clear stand on Governor Spitzer’s idiotic plan to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens. (Spitzer, by the way, has come under such attack that he now admits he might withdraw the idea entirely.)

That contretemps morphed into a related problem for Hillary: her constant double-talk, where she takes ambiguous positions on issues - and leaves listeners confused over what she just said. This Clinton-speak is her and Bill’s - trademark - and it is now hurting her Big Time.

The this past weekend came another potentially-defining revelation: the Clinton Campaign has been planting questions in her audiences at her Town Hall forums around Iowa. At least two people have admitted to being approached by Clinton staffers for this purpose.

In Iowa, where the caucus-goers are politically sophisticated, this type of activity could hurt her very badly. It fits into an emerging picture of Hillary as a cold, scripted, unlikeable, manipulative, say-anything candidate. And she is running against two guys - Barack and Edwards - who are all-too-happy to pound her now that she is in trouble.

Hillary’s other problem, as a friend of mine points out, is that she is trying to run a traditional Republican campaign in the Democratic primaries. In other words, a “it’s my turn nowâ€