How Badly Did Hillary Clinton Do….

….At the Democrat's candidate debate on Tuesday? Well, apparently badly enough that her campaign is in full-power damage control mode. The Hill reports sitting in on a conference call that sounds like the campaign staff is badly rattled. They are begging supporters for more money and complaining that their candidate is being picked on.

Mark Penn, Clinton’s senior strategist and pollster, and Jonathan Mantz, the campaign’s finance director, told the supporters on the call, which The Hill listened to in its entirety, that they expect attacks from Clinton’s rivals to continue, and she will need the financial resources to deflect their attacks.

Clinton came under withering assault in the Philadelphia debate, and some supporters on the call agreed with analysts that she stumbled.

“I wouldn’t say she lost her cool,” one caller said. “But I would say she lost her footing.”

The caller addded that Clinton’s response to questions about records from her time in the White House that have been sealed by the National Archives “made me roll my eyes.”

The criticisms followed Penn’s assertion that Clinton was “unflappable.” He also said criticisms from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) would backfire and that he was already “detecting some backlash,” particularly among female voters.

Those female voters are saying, “Sen. Clinton needs our support now more than ever if we’re going to see this six-on-one to try to bring her down,” Penn told those on the campaign call.

He, Mantz and several supporters hinted repeatedly on the call that Clinton was unfairly targeted by Tim Russert, debate moderator and host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Russert made it appear that President Clinton had done something new or unusual,” Penn said, before adding that it “is, in fact, an extremely confusing situation … I think there will be further clarification.”

“I hope so,” a female caller responded. “To me, it was the most uncomfortable part of the debate.”

Penn turned again to Russert. “The other candidates were asked questions like, ‘Is there life in outer space?’ ”

The object of the call, and a follow-up breakfast Thursday morning with campaign chairman and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Terry McAuliffe, was apparently to stop whatever bleeding the senator might have sustained during a debate in which Clinton wore a bull’s-eye on her back throughout the evening.

One person on the conference call apparently opined that Tim Russert should be shot. She quickly backpedaled from that statement, but still, the words were put out there. Read it yourself, but it sounds like both staff and supporters are more than a little worried about Clinton's performance. I've watched the clip of her stumble over the driver's licenses for illegal immigrants questions - and it is a rather bad stumble. She managed to look like she was pandering while cheerfully reversing course in the blink of an eye. That video will be haunting her come the general campaign if she wind the nomination.

I'm still not watching this endless stream of debates, personally. It used to be one or two during the campaigns now it seems like there is one every two days or so. I think its a bad idea, personally. More debates don't clarify the candidates positions as much as they provide opportunities for 'gotcha' moments. As Clinton seems to have found out.