The last 5 major pollsters to publish New Hampshire numbers (CNN, Gallup, ARG, Strategic Vision and Rasmussen) show Hillary Clinton at least 9 points behind Barack Obama, on the eve of the primary. Two of the pollsters show a 12 point advantage.
What then?
If Obama whips Clinton by 9-12 points, or worse, what will the Clintons do? Will they accept the writing on the wall and move to help consolidate Democrats behind Obama? Not likely.
Dick Morris makes two assertions in his recent NY Post column;
- That Hillary can come back after losing the first 4 States.
- That you can look for Hillary to bloody Obama, even playing the race card if she has to.
I disagree with Morris on both counts. If Hillary loses New Hampshire, she is done and that is all there is to it. Oh, she will fight on and she will become nasty and vindictive in that uniquely Clintonesque style of character assassination. In fact, knowing the history of what happens to people who get in the way of the Clintons, Obama might want to hire more security and sleep with the lights on.
In the end, as we have already posted here, it was exactly that trademark Clinton vindictiveness that turned the voters off in the first place. Going negative will only have the effect of hastening her free fall. Absent a miracle, the Clinton legacy is dead in 48 hours. |