A Series Of Clumsy Slurs

Toby Harnden from The Telegraph thinks that Barack Obama has surged ahead in polls mostly because of the incredibly inept series of clumsy slurs the Clinton campaign has launched in recent weeks. While he may be overly optimistic – which he admits is quite possible – he may also be right. The awkward, almost flailing actions of team Clinton have made them look weak and terrified at the same time and have made Hillary Clinton a laughingstock in many ways. If Obama wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, it could well be deadly trouble for Clinton.

It was the moment that Barack Obama became the front-runner in the race for the White House. As he waited at a private terminal in Washington airport to board his charter plane to Des Moines for Thursday's Democratic debate, an aide to Hillary Clinton approached him. The former First Lady would "like to have a word".

The two senators work in the same building – the Capitol – and had been criss-crossing the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire on the same bleak roads. They sometimes stayed at the same hotels – though, by design, never at the same time.

But apart from the briefest of pleasantries, the rival candidates for the presidency had not spoken for almost a year. Back in January, on the day Mr Obama's presidential ambitions became clear, Mrs Clinton had ignored his outstretched hand.

Mrs Clinton, about to turn 60, had based her campaign on the idea that she would make history as the first woman president. But this upstart, nearly 15 years her junior, could trump that: as the son of a white woman from Kansas and a former goatherd from Kenya, he would be the first black president. Her contempt for this impertinence was never far from the surface.

Although taken aback by the overture, Mr Obama hesitated only briefly before assenting. On the tarmac, where their planes had been parked alongside each other, they talked for 10 minutes.

Startlingly, Mrs Clinton wanted to say sorry. The New York senator told her colleague from Illinois that he probably wanted to "hear from me" that comments by Bill Shaheen, a senior Clinton campaign figure, suggesting that Mr Obama might have been a drug dealer, were "unauthorised and inappropriate".

Yeah, right. Which is why she went in front of the press yesterday and promised that there were "no surprises" to be found in Hillary's history. That's vintage Clinton hardball, hinting that she has even more dirt to dredge – most effective if said dirt never actually comes out. The dark hint is meant to leave a lingering odor that something may be a bit off about Clinton's enemies. I don't think there are too many people who don't believe the entire kabuki starring Billy Shaheen was not orchestrated by the campaign right from the get-go. Even the apology was a set piece to demonstrate Clinton's "presidential" qualities. The important thing was to get the slur out there and into the news. Shaheen was merely the loyal designated scapegoat. He has too big a reputation as a sharp operative to have done this accidentally.

Will all of Clinton's schemes backfire on her? It is possible. She really is not well liked by a lot of even loyal Democrats. Things like a string of clumsy slurs may be enough to turn just a few people away from her. A candidate with as high a negative rating as Clinton has cannot afford the loss of a single vote. Her machine may recover, but the wheels may also be starting to come off. We'll know in a few weeks. If she places third in Iowa, she may really be in trouble.