ROOM TO GROW. A lot of people dismiss Hillary Clinton's strength in national polls as name recognition and point to Iowa and New Hampshire polls as evidence that's she's actually quite weak. Well, the latest from Zogby shows that her presidential announcement -- delivered online on a Saturday -- was enough to bump her up 8 points in Iowa, ahead of Obama and into a dead heat with John Edwards. And in New Hampshire, she gained enough to take the lead from Barack Obama.
I have a feeling Clinton is going to continually surprise people by not being as weak or unpopular a candidate as they think she should be. That's because, where Edwards is positioning himself as the working class favorite, and Obama has won the hearts of the political elite, Clinton is going forward as the middle-brow candidate. A lot of very smart people are going to sneer at her, and alternately condemn her campaign moves as uninspired or cheesy, but we are a middle-brow country, and I expect that Clinton is going to demonstrate a surprising ability to garner support without anyone D.C. media elites know backing her. Come to think of it, that's kind of the position her husband was in, too.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
