Clinton foes pounce on ‘crack in armor'

This was fun to watch!

From the politico:

Republicans and her Democratic foes scrambled Wednesday to frame Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as evasive and contradictory after a debate performance that left her looking vulnerable for the first time in her campaign.

With TV ads, speeches and mass e-mails, they plan to label Clinton as deceptive and intentionally vague, with “evasion” and “obfuscation” as their new watchwords.

“If that frame sticks, it’ll be like John Kerry and the flip-flop thing,” said a key aide to a Clinton opponent.

“Whatever she says, people will be wondering if she is parsing her language. It’s what drives Democrats nuts about the Clintons. Then, everything she says will be taken with a grain of salt.”

The struggling campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) feel they have new life as they head into the frenzied two months before the Iowa caucuses.

Contributions poured into Edwards' Web site on Wednesday following his strong debate performance, the campaign said. He plans to announce a "sizeable" buy for a 60-second television ad in Iowa on Thursday to try to keep his momentum going, campaign sources said.

And Republicans see a chance to remind voters of the old caricatures of Clinton, which she had worked to transcend during the first 10 months of her campaign for her party’s presidential nomination.

Until now, leaders of both parties had viewed Clinton as unstoppable.

But she left herself open to attack when she refused at a debate on Tuesday to take a clear position on a plan by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to allow illegal immigrants with foreign passports to obtain driver’s licenses.

“First crack in the armor,” a well-known Republican told Politico by e-mail. “We will go to work with a sledgehammer on that crack.”

She really blew it on this one! She went and showed people her true side; a sneaky, manipulating conniving politician. I hope this stays with the American people.

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