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By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 | Hillary Clinton | Potential Campaign Implosions — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The stage is now firmly set for the Hillary Clinton Is The New Comeback Kid!" stories.

Read on for more below . . .

Fineman:

Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign is teetering on the brink, no matter what the meaningless national horserace numbers say. The notion that she has a post-Iowa "firewall" in New Hampshire is a fantasy, and she is in danger of losing all four early contests, including Nevada and South Carolina - probably to Sen. Barack Obama, who is now, in momentum terms, the Democratic frontrunner.

[. . .]

National polls still give Hillary a double-digit lead. Those polls mean nothing. What matters now is not the number but the direction, and Obama is movin' on up at a rapid pace. Little pieces of evidence matter. In Manchester, N.H., the other day, Democratic Gov. John Lynch showed up at the Obama-Oprah rally, ostensibly to introduce Oprah, but, really to cover his bets politically. The newest polls in the state show why: Obama is tied with Hillary, and people are literally exchanging her lawn signs for his. If he can win Iowa - and it remains a big if - Hillary's campaign could collapse. New Hampshire would almost surely go his way. The Culinary Workers in Nevada might well endorse him, as could influential South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn. Black Democrats have complained for years that Iowa and New Hampshire are "too white." But the irony is, South Carolina African-Americans I talked to last weekend want to see if Obama can win white votes before they commit to him. There is no better way of doing that than in Iowa and New Hampshire. And don't forget something else: he has 150,000 online contributors. He can raise cash fast.

If she is going to argue that Obama is unelectable in the fall - if she is going to argue that the Democrats cannot afford to take the risk on a Southside Chicago street organizer - she had better get to it in the debate this week. But it is a tricky proposition.  In a way, Hillary is trapped by her own do-it-yourself feminist ethos. She should have surrogates out there pounding away at Obama. I haven't seen them. And her husband, evidently, won't do it. Why should Bill Clinton tarnish his image as "America's first black president" by attacking the man who might be the real deal? His circle is beginning to complain, loudly, about how Hillary is running her campaign. That kind of circular firing squad chatter is the first sign of a campaign headed into oblivion.

Breitbart:

Hillary Clinton on Friday denied her White House campaign was in disarray, despite sliding poll ratings and an uproar sparked by an aide who questioned her rival Barack Obama's drug history.

"If I had listened to ... the Washington chattering class, I would not be standing here would I?" Clinton told reporters, as controversy and reports of campaign turmoil swirled around her 2008 presidential bid.

"I believe in trusting my own instincts. I feel very, very good about the case that I am making."

New signs of fragility for the former first lady came just 20 days before Iowa holds first state votes for a Democratic nomination that Clinton seemed to have in her grasp just a few months ago.

She has endured six weeks of woe, battered by a shaky debate performance in Philadelphia, accusations that her campaign was planting questions at her events and the Obama drugs slur.

In a determined press conference, Clinton promised a "mad dash" towards the caucuses, starting this weekend with a five-day chopper tour or "Hilo-copter" blitz through all the midwestern's state's 99 counties.

The Concord Monitor:

Barack Obama has come from behind to turn the Democratic presidential race in New Hampshire into a toss-up, according to a new Monitor opinion poll. The results - which show Obama with a one-point edge over Hillary Clinton - mirror other polls released this week, indicating that Clinton's once-imposing lead has evaporated in the run-up to New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary.

The poll suggests that the Democratic race could hinge on the turnout of undeclared voters, who aren't registered with either political party. Much of Obama's backing comes from undeclared voters, while registered Democrats make up the bulk of Clinton's support. In New Hampshire, undeclared voters can vote in either party primary, giving them sway in both contests.

"The more undeclared voters that decide to vote in the Democratic primary, the better chance Obama wins," said Del Ali, president of Research 2000, the Maryland-based nonpartisan polling firm that conducted the poll for the Monitor on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. "What Hillary Clinton has to hope is that more of the established Democrats come out to vote."

And what if they don't:

Back to the people setting up the "In One Of The Greatest Upsets In Political History, Hillary Clinton, Like Lazarus, Raises Herself Back From The Dead!" stories. Let's hear from the head of the Wyoming Democratic Party:

The Democratic Party chairman in Wyoming is predicting that Democratic candidates throughout the Rocky Mountain region will be damaged if his party selects Hillary Clinton for president.

"Every Democratic candidate in Wyoming will be painted with that same liberal, big-government brush. We will also be the target of the locker room jokes that rightfully belong to Bill Clinton," John Millin wrote in a letter to The Denver Post.

"While I don't agree with this view of Mrs. Clinton, I have to accept that this is the truth. It has become the dirty little secret in the Democratic Party," he wrote. "Westerners have an independent, libertarian spirit and Democrats can make Republicans pay a heavy price for years of pandering to the social conservatives. None of this will happen if Hillary wins the nomination."

Oh heck, maybe this guy will help play Dewey to Hillary Clinton's Truman. And yes, I still think that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee.

But I am increasingly wondering whether I might be wrong.