Let us pause to offer a moment of sympathy for the baffled Hillary Clinton. After all, she is fighting a man who captures lightning in a bottle. How do you beat that?
As Super Tuesday approaches, that is the Clinton dilemma. Barack Obama has stirred the imagination and produced throngs of new voters she never saw coming. He has inspired not only a new generation, but an old one, too. Pooh Bahs Ted Kennedy and John Kerry have signaled that the establishment doesn't want to get left off the Obama bandwagon.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Clinton war room preparations for 2008 envisioned humdrum primary opponents who would be the Gray Men next to her Steel Magnolia. Most would be senators, like Chris Dodd or Joe Biden, serious men but not serious contenders. John Edwards would be there, but he was damaged goods from 2004. Kooks like Dennis Kucinich would provide comic relief and further splinter the anti-Hillary vote.
She would be better known, better financed, better prepared. The lefties would go after her on the Iraq vote, but that could help define her as a centrist to the hawks.
Hubby would be her ace in the hole. He would soften the ground with a charm offensive and smooth over any mess.
According to the plan, next week is when she was scheduled to secure the nomination.
Oops, it's not gonna happen. At least not yet.
One month of voting has shattered the plan. She got rid of the Gray Men, but Obama won landslides in two of four contests, Iowa and South Carolina. Nevada was a solid victory for her, but it came after New Hampshire, which she won because she teared up and women rushed to defend her.
South Carolina was the worst. The Clintons used up their entire supply of mud and most of it ended up back on them. Bubba is tarnished as a race-baiter and the bulk of black voters are lost, perhaps forever.
Part of her problem is generational. She's 60, about the same age as the last two Presidents, and iconic images are working against her. After the Iowa loss, the stage around her looked like a wax museum. Madeleine Albright and others from her husband's administration were yesterday's leaders, not tomorrow's.
Her personal style is old-school. Just as Obama was being swallowed by the exuberant crowd after the Kennedy coronation, Clinton was giving a speech to an audience that was kept far away from her by steel barriers. She might as well wear a sign that says, "Look, Don't Touch."
Even the crux of her case, that her experience means she is ready to be President while Obama is not, is under attack. Ted Kennedy went right at it Monday, saying of Obama, "I know he's ready to be President on Day One."
Those unexpected dynamics explain why the Clintons have resorted to tactical battles, such as leaking Kennedy's endorsement before Obama could. She has tried to bring Obama down from the pedestal by nitpicking at his words about Republicans and drawing distinctions about whose health care plan is more extensive. She's willing to be a dream-deflater by saying he's peddling "false hopes" about politics.
She did it again yesterday, when I asked if she was concerned that his optimistic appeals about unity give him an advantage over her litany of programs.
"No, hope has to be made a reality in politics," she said in a telephone interview with the Daily News Editorial Board. She once again quoted Mario Cuomo's line that "you campaign in poetry and govern in prose" and added, "I've brought a lot of people into the process."
"I really believe Americans want change and experience," she said.
At least she hopes that's what Americans want. Because for now, her plan needs work.
