Cómo enfrentar a Obama

Siete de cada diez demócratas decidieron apoyar a otro candidato que no fuese la antes-conocida-como-inevitable Hillary Clinton el pasado jueves en el Caucus de Iowa. Esto implica riesgos reales para la Senadora por Nueva York en las próximas primarias, en la medida en que uno de sus rivales sobresalga por encima del resto -la constante presencia de Obama en los medios estos días- como la gran referencia para aglutinar ese mayoritario voto de rechazo a Hillary que se expresó en Iowa. No parece pues, que una estrategia defensiva sea suficiente para convencer a los que dudan de ella, que deben estar dudando más aún desde hace dos días. En el Wall Street Journal reflexionan sobre cómo puede Hillary enfrentar a Obama en New Hampshire. Clinton Camp's Challenge: How Hard to Hit Obama?

(...) Several Democratic strategists unaffiliated with any campaign said on Friday that Sen. Clinton could lose in the early states and still clinch the nomination on Feb. 5. To do so, they said, she must focus on burnishing her own image in the coming month, and she must resist the temptation to tar Sen. Obama.

"The Clinton campaign needs to play for the long term, and righting the ship in terms of how people see her is more important than beating Obama," says Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who's not backing any candidate. "I don't think that Hillary Clinton has made clear what the fundamental change is that she would bring about, and why people should trust her to do it."

(...) As Sen. Clinton opened what will be the shortest campaign ever between the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire's primary, she suggested she will continue to focus on her opponents and to boast of her experience. At a diner here, she told voters that she would be "drawing contrasts between what I've done for 35 years and what my leading opponents have done."

With her was a top New Hampshire supporter, state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, who warns against going negative: "My advice is, always be positive," he said in an interview afterward. "She has to increase her 'likeability' quotient," he added. "When people meet her one-on-one, they like her very much."

Both inside and outside the Clinton campaign, Democrats were grumbling on Friday that the signals being sent -- chiefly from Mr. Penn, in his lengthy remarks to reporters aboard a charter flight from Iowa -- suggested that the campaign is more interested in having Sen. Obama brought down than in building up Sen. Clinton.

In almost every Democratic election, Mr. Penn said at one point, "You see people latch on to the new, seemingly fresh candidate, only to then take a sobering look at the choice they have when it comes down to the end of it. I think you're going to see that again." (...)