The Clintons On The Defensive

This has been a real bad week for the Clinton clan. First, Hillary came in third in the Iowa caucuses. Then, her favorite bagman, Norman Hsu, was sentenced in California to three years in prison from the charges stemming from his 1994 conviction (he's still awaiting trial on multiple charges in New York and California).

Finally, she was booed at New Hampshire Democratic Party dinner. Gateway Pundit has the details.

This comes at a time when her campaign is looking to turn things around. They've rolled out their heavy guns - Bill Clinton, but that double edged sword looks like it's a wee bit dull. He's busy blaming the media for his wife's political misfortunes, and is blaming them if Hillary is forced to go negative on Obama to make up ground.

Are you kidding me? Of course Hillary is going to go negative on Obama. It's the way of politics to go after your opponents with negative stories and ad campaigns because it usually works. People often say they hate all the negativity in political campaigns and yet we see time and time again that those campaigns make up significant ground in polls. Here, there's an interesting dynamic because Hillary would be seen beating up on Obama, who is the first African American candidate who appears to have a shot at winning the nomination and the Presidency (although some media outlets and pundits who run with that line ought to remember that Jesse Jackson came before as did Shirley Chisholm and Jackson won several states including Michigan in the 1984 primaries).

Marc Ambinder has more on the Clinton strategy to swarm New Hampshire with her supporters to help get out the vote and her message. If she does poorly here, where her network is deepest, she's got real serious problems going forward, and it puts Obama in the driver's seat.

Still, the RCP average for the nomination still has Hillary in a commanding position, garnering nearly 44% and a 20 point lead over Obama in polls.

UPDATE:
At least CNN is still covering for the Clintons. They've whitewashed all traces of Hillary's links to Hsunami in their coverage of the sentencing of Norman Hsu, who happened to be one of Hillary's big moneymakers. Don Surber has the details.