If you've watched the trends in my city for the last several months you could see this coming. Hillary Clinton's support in the Empire State is slip sliding. For the last several months the NY money has been leaving her camp, and it looks like now the voters are beginning to follow - and nary a commercial has yet been aired.
In head to head match-ups she still maintains leads over Obama in the primary but her margin is 10 points down from just a month ago. And in a general election match-up against Giuliani, her once sizable lead, is now 48-43%.
No doubt her clearly transparent pandering to the Al Sharpton rent-a-mob is rubbing black voters wrong, and there is the all-too-well-liked Obama waiting to pick up the disgruntled factions.
I'm not predicting its the beginning of the end for Hillary. She's obviously got a lot of time and money. But it could be the end of the beginning, and the more the layers are peeled back, the more the American voters will most likely look elsewhere.
One last note on the panderbyte (my new word - feel free to pass on in the course of the election cycle as the term fits. Definition: a soundbyte used in the art of pandering to potential voters) of the weekend:
"When I walk into the Oval Office in January of 2009, I'm afraid I'm going to lift up the rug and see so much stuff under there... (mediocre applause from less than enthused what sounds like a predominantly female audience)"
Word of advice to the former first lady:
You really, really, really, DO NOT WANT to bring up anything related to the topic of "stuff left behind on/under/near the rugs in the Oval Office!" For whatever you do find we doubt it will glow in the DNA forensic sensors of a CSI unit they your husband's "contributions" would have...
Yes... we're so ready as a nation to put the Clinton's back on center stage aren't we?