Hillary Clinton wobbles as her backers turn to Barack Obama [View All]

[ClarkUSA]

From tomorrow's UK Sunday Times:

The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, the Democrat frontrunner, is facing a wave of defections by supporters to Barack Obama,
as an aura of “inevitability” about her nomination fades... A few days ago, Helen Quarles peeled off the Hillary for President bumper
stickers from her car and replaced them with Obama ’08. “I didn’t think anybody could turn me away from Hillary,” said Quarles,
who worked as a volunteer for Clinton’s first Senate election campaign in New York. “I liked her and was very fond of Bill... but
there’s something about Obama,” she said. “To me, he is the one who is going to make a difference.”

Former “Friends of Bill”, who served in the White House in 1990s but defected early on to Obama’s campaign, are not surprised by
the drift away from Hillary. Betsy Myers, a White House adviser on women’s issues - and sister of Dee-Dee Myers, Bill Clinton’s
former press secretary - is now chief operating officer for Obama’s campaign and responsible for much of its organ-isational
prowess. Myers worked with Clinton when she was first lady. “Politics are about relationships, so it was not an easy choice, but
I was really looking for a new generation of leadership skills, away from the old control and command model,” she said. “For me,
it wasn’t a vote against Hillary Clinton but a vote for Barack. He is very authentic and comfortable in his own skin and has a history
of working across the aisles for the common good... William Daley, Bill Clinton’s former secretary of commerce, is another prominent
Obama backer...“He’s an extremely talented young fellow, who I have watched grow. He can strongly convey to the world that
there is a different generation and a different style about America,” William Daley said. “I’ve known the president and Mrs Clinton
for a long time and have enormous respect for them, but we’re still fresh in a new century. Among the American people there is
a bit of a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton issue.” Daley - in common with a discreet handful of “Friends of Bill” who are backing Hillary’s
presidential bid - feels she would be better suited to the job of Senate majority leader. “It would be perfect for her,” he said. “She
would be a great person defending the Democrats and doing the back and forth on talk shows.”

Clinton’s campaign staff - normally self-assured - began to wobble last week as the polls narrowed. A po-faced press release
accusing Obama of wanting to be president since kindergarten was mocked and later explained away by Mark Penn, Clinton’s
top strategist, as a joke. Clinton herself came under fire for claiming that the “fun part” of the campaign had started - code
for going negative on her rival. In South Carolina, the latest poll shows Obama moving into first place over Clinton by 26% to
24%. In the summer Clinton held a 15-point lead. In Iowa, Obama moved into the lead in two polls last week, although the
race remains too close to call. In New Hampshire, Clinton’s formerly substantial lead over Obama has dropped to single digits.
“In both Iowa and New Hampshire, people don’t like to be told who is going to win,” Myers said. “They take their job very
seriously and like to make up their own mind.”

Judie Reever, a state representative in New Hampshire, believes Clinton is looking vulnerable for the first time. “I was initially
very excited that we were going to have a woman running for president. I met Hillary when Bill Clinton was running for office.
She was wonderful and gracious – if people said nasty things about her, I’d say, ‘That’s not my experience’. It never occurred
to me that I wouldn’t support her. All of sudden, I got the sense that she was who the Republicans would like to be the candidate.
There’s a love-hate relationship with her and when all is said and done, we’d be a divided nation even if she won - and I’m not
sure she would. Every time I heard Obama speak, I kept saying, ‘Yes!’, and I suddenly realised he was the person I was going to
support.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3022206.ece

Obama's message sounds good even to longtime Friends of Bill and Hillary. Wow! :-)