"Clinton’s critics have been so unhinged in their attacks, and so scathing in their criticisms..." [View All]

Clinton’s critics have been so unhinged in their attacks, and so scathing in their criticisms, that a casual observer who hasn’t seen too much of Clinton lately starts to think she’s the Wicked Witch of the West. After all, Limbaugh, Fox News, & Co. characterize her as having no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

And then voters see her for themselves … and realize she’s not awful after all. Indeed, she’s quite pleasant, and shows a fairly warm personality, in addition to being obviously bright.

In a sense, Clinton’s detractors have been too successful. They’ve lowered expectations, which manage to make the senator look even better.

It reminds me a lot of the period before the 2004 presidential debates, when Bush-Cheney ‘04 convinced much of the nation that John Kerry could barely complete a sentence without tripping over his own words in some kind of desperate flip-flop. Kerry was “dull,” “wishy-washy,” and “unsure of himself.” The GOP-driven conventional wisdom was that Kerry’s tendency towards nuance made him “aloof” and “overly cautious.” In the debates, he was going to be awful — a Time magazine poll taken before the first debate showed that Americans expected Bush, not Kerry, to “win” the debate, 44% to 32%.

Of course, Kerry did a great job, and his performance in the debates helped narrow the gap considerably. The real Kerry didn’t match the Kerry caricature at all.

I think we’re seeing the same phenomenon play out with Hillary Clinton. People almost expect not to like her, because they’ve been told for years that she’s “cold,” “calculating,” and “unfeeling.” She’s supposed to come across as “ambitious” and “power-hungry.” And then voters listen to her for a few minutes and realize none of those qualities are there.

What’s more, as Kevin argued way back in January, the right has thrown just about every attack imaginable at this woman, and her political standing is still pretty strong. That they’ve managed to lower expectations is just an unexpected bonus for Clinton’s campaign.

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