Hillary on Stilts

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It's been a rough day for Hillary. First, as noted here, she was drummed from pillar to post on ABC's "This Week." NewsBuster Noel Sheppard then detailed here how Chris Matthews' crew raked her over the coals. Now, completing Hillary's troika of tribulation, the CBS Evening News has gotten into the act.

The development being reported was ostensibly positive for Hillary: the Des Moines Register today endorsed her. If CBS had stopped there, it would have been a plus for the Clinton campaign. But unfortunately for Hillary . . . the Evening News decided to play clips of Clinton on the stump in Iowa.

First came Hillary at her platitudinous worst, somberly informing the crowd that "the road to the White House for the next president begins here in Iowa." I'm guessing Hawkeye State caucus-goers didn't need that pointed out to them.

But it got much -- much -- worse. Words can't express just how stilted Hillary was in a subsequent clip. Just when Clinton should have been at her most Comeback-Kid ebullient, Hillary exuded all the joie de vivre of an undertaker in a cold December rain.

I was especially honored by the endorsement this morning of my candidacy by the Des Moines Register. It was an important event in this process, and I am [excruciating pause] very grateful.

View it here and try to imagine, in contrast with Hillary's downer of a delivery, how Bill would have played the same good news.

Can a presidential candidate so lacking in the basic tools of the politician's trade be successful? Well, Richard Nixon, ever shy on the stump, was elected twice. Even so . . .