CNN’s Cafferty Exposes Trouble in ‘Hillary Land’

Less than twenty minutes after Paul Begala appeared on Monday’s "The Situation Room" and defended the popularity of Hillary Clinton by comparing President Bush to venereal diseases, CNN’s Jack Cafferty highlighted some of the troubles in Hillary’s own campaign. Among these, a focus group of Democrats found that the former First Lady is "devious, calculating, and a divisive figure."

Cafferty, quoting from a piece by Bloomberg’s Albert Hunt, went on to say that the same focus group found that if Hillary won the presidential election, she would be "demanding, difficult, maybe even a little scary." Hunt’s piece also described some apparent "political strains" within the Hillary’s campaign, such as Bill Clinton "bouncing off the walls" at her campaign’s "ineptitude."

The full transcript of the "Cafferty File" segment from Monday’s "The Situation Room:"

JACK CAFFERTY: Wolf, things are tense in Hillary Land these days. The headline on an interesting piece on Bloomberg that I read this morning by Albert Hunt, focuses on the situation in which Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton currently finds herself. It describes a focus group of Democrats in Philadelphia. After talking with participants, a Democratic pollster found concerns among the focus group about Clinton. These concerns included that she is devious, calculating, and a divisive figure in American politics. The focus group also said that as president, Clinton would be demanding, difficult, maybe even a little scary. These are Democrats.

Meanwhile, Clinton's once commanding lead over Barack Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire is evaporating. An average of polls taken in Iowa in mid to late November shows that Obama appears to be leading Clinton now in Iowa, 28 to 25 percent. In New Hampshire, an average of polls shows Clinton leading Obama by 10 points, but that's roughly half the lead she had earlier this fall. In the past 30 years, no candidate has lost both Iowa and New Hampshire and gone on to win the nomination.

The Bloomberg piece also suggests there are some political strains within Hillary's camp over, among other things, her greatest perceived asset, that would be her husband, President Bill Clinton. Top campaign officials apparently furious when the former president said a couple of weeks ago -- quoted as saying he had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. And one close associate says that President Clinton is bouncing off the walls at Hillary's campaign's ineptitude over the last few weeks. There's even talk, apparently, according to this piece, of making some changes within the campaign. But that's risky this close to the Iowa caucuses.

The question we have then is this: With three-and-one-half weeks until the first votes are cast in Iowa, what should Hillary Clinton's campaign do to stop the bleeding? E-mail your thoughts to caffertyfile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/caffertyfile. You know, this once was -- they didn't think twice about this last summer. They figured Hillary would cruise through these primaries and these caucuses, merely an inconvenient impediment on her way to the nomination. They're not sure at all that's going to happen anymore.

WOLF BLITZER: It was supposedly inevitable...

CAFFERTY: Yeah.

BLITZER: ...but it may still happen, but it's not necessarily inevitable.

CAFFERTY: It doesn't look like it at this point.

BLITZER: Jack, thanks very much.