Invisible? More Like Inevitable

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) hits the air in Iowa today with her first commercial, it’s worth remembering that just months ago a top aide’s memo was leaked in which he recommended she skip Iowa. As Iowans watch Clinton stroll through a corn field talking about how some Americans may be invisible to President Bush but aren’t to her, those caucus-goers may wonder if she didn’t leak the memo herself. The timing was perfect for her to exceed such lowered expectations there, and by now she already has.

Clinton was the subject of an Associated Press story Monday by Ron Fournier and according to more than 40 key Democratic sources spread across the country there is fear throughout the party that a Clinton nomination will cost Democrats everywhere. Her unfavorability ratings, which historically increase during campaigns, are higher than those that John Kerry, Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush had at the end of their campaigns. Those numbers get worse for Clinton in red states where Democrats are either hanging on for dear life to former GOP seats or in purple areas the party would like to win.

But the Clinton camp continues to assure nervous Democrats that she has the greatest potential to win and that many who fear her nomination will support her anyway. What more does she need? In her commercial she is using “invisible” as a theme, but the word she wants us to take from it is “inevitable.” She isn’t running against any other Democrat in the ad, she’s just beating up on Bush and acting like she is already the nominee. She has dashed the expectations of detractors who thought she would chew up her opponents in the primary, making it harder for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to bite back. Just what are his expectations of Clinton’s candidacy now? Even Karl Rove is betting she will beat him. Does Obama still think he can stop the inevitable, or has he bitten off more than he can chew?

***

Thanks for watching last week’s Ask A.B. segment, but to those of you who posted comments, you may have to watch again to note that “get in bed with” was an expression Jorge the questioner used, and not my words. Please send in a question for a future segment to askab@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com and I will quote you precisely as well, as long as it is not offensive, factually inaccurate, etc.