Where Hillary Clinton stumbled

Senator John Edwards, after weeks of holding back, decided to endorse Obama on the Wednesday after Clinton enjoyed a rare bit of good news...

TIMING OF THE EDWARDS ENDORSEMENT: Senator John Edwards, after weeks of holding back, decided to endorse Obama on the Wednesday after Clinton enjoyed a rare bit of good news, a 41-point defeat of Obama in West Virginia. Edwards8217; decision to move that day 8212;and in prime time, no8212;less took the wind out of the Clinton campaign8217;s sails, depriving it of what seemed to be at least a chance to get back in the hunt.

MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA: The importance of these two states being relegated to the sidelines8212;because they defied the Democratic Party and held their primaries earlier than party rule8212;allowed cannot be overstated. For Clinton, the best of all worlds would have been for the Democratic National Committee to do what the Republican National Committee did to Florida and Michigan for breaking the rules: cut the delegations in half, but still permit the primaries to go on. That outcome8212;assuming she won in Michigan and Florida, which seems a pretty good bet8212;might have given Clinton a burst of momentum going into the 8220;Super Tuesday8221; primaries of February 5, and possibly allowed her to emerge that day with a significant lead in delegates.

THE DRUDGE REPORT: In October, The New York Times published an article examining the relationship between Clinton and the Drudge Report. The article related how the Report, which historically had tormented the Clintons, had begun routinely posting items boosting Clinton8217;s campaign. For Clinton, things changed almost overnight after that: The Drudge Report returned to being a vehicle driving negative stories about Clinton, bad news about the Clinton campaign got extensive attention, and Clinton8217;s war room spent many hours trying to tamp down rumours and suspect information being trumpeted on the site.

THE TIPPING SCANDAL: What if an NPR reporter had checked with the Clinton campaign before posting an article reporting the complaints by an Iowa waiter that Clinton had stiffed her for a tip? After it appeared, the Clinton campaign produced a sheaf of material rebutting the claim. Yet even though the article was not quite right8212;NPR posted a clarification8212;the damage was done. The story spread across the state and the country, feeding the image of Clinton as entitled and imperious, at a time when she was already struggling to find her legs in Iowa, a state she went on to lose.

BILL CLINTON: Granted, former President Clinton may have helped his wife in Pennsylvania and perhaps in Indiana. But it seems hard to argue that Bill Clinton was anything but a net negative for Clinton overall. Why didn8217;t Clinton and her team simply put him on a tighter leash?

PLANTED QUESTIONS AND RUMOURS: It is hard to exaggerate how much damage Clinton suffered from two things that her supporters got busted for doing early on: Planting questions in audiences at town halls in Iowa, and forwarding e-mail messages suggesting that Obama is a Muslim. He is not. The Clinton campaign vigorously denied that these efforts were approved or orchestrated. Still, the stories about them, eagerly circulated by her opponents, underlined the notion that Clinton was scripted and calculating.