Smartest Woman in World Urges Iowans to Caucus on Wrong Day

Can you imagine the media frenzy if a Republican presidential candidate passed out cards at a campaign event urging attendees to go vote on the wrong day?

Consider the wall-to-wall coverage that would have occurred if President Bush had done this when seeking reelection in 2004.

Well, the supposedly smartest woman in the world, with her supposedly genius husband's assistance, actually did this in Iowa on Saturday.

Didn't hear about it? Color me unsurprised.

As reported by Reuters Monday (emphasis added):

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton may have shot herself in the foot trying to get Iowa voters to pledge support to her -- she is encouraging them to caucus on January 14, 11 days too late.

At a rally featuring her husband, former President Bill Clinton on Saturday, campaign workers asked supporters to sign and mail cards that said "Yes! I'm an Iowan for Hillary" with their contact information as well as other supportive friends.

One small problem. In the upper right-hand corner of the card, it says "I, _____, pledge to support Hillary Clinton at my precinct caucus on January 14, 2008."

Unfortunately, that's 11 days too late.

[...]

The Politico.com, an Internet site that specializes in politics and first reported the mistake, said at Bill Clinton's second event on Saturday the cards had the wrong date crossed out and replaced with the correct date.

How delicious. Once again, just imagine if this gaffe was made by Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, or John McCain. Think this would have gotten more attention?

Maybe more importantly, consider the firestorm this would have set off in 2004 if Bush had made such an error.

I guess this means folks of the Clintons' intellect get a pass when they make bonehead mistakes, huh?