I don't think that it surprised anyone that Hilary Clinton decided to go negative now that it looks like her position as front runner is threatened.  Indeed I don't think that very many of us are surprised that she went very negative when she decided it was time to go negative.  What really surprised me is that she did such a poor job of it.

For months now she has been telling us that she is the only one who knows how to fight toe-to-toe when the Republicans attack, and she assured us that she was ready.  When she attacked a fellow Democrat, I expected her to show us this vaunted ability to really drive the hit home.  The Clinton campaign has taken their swing at Barack Obama and to our collective astonishment, she missed.

Clinton's opposition research is certainly thorough.  She uncovered evidence of his boyhood dreams to be our president as recorded in the title of essays written in the third grade and even kindergarten.  Sadly for her campaign, they seem unable to tell the difference between plans and dreams.  They also seem unable to tell where the line is between decorum and ridiculous, and the difference between an attack that will hurt the other guy and the attack that will hurt the person making it.

She has also attacked Obama for helping to strengthen the democratic party with his leadership pack and encouraging Iowa residents to register to vote in Iowa if they are students.  Most Democrats encourage people to vote and encourage our leaders to use their own funds to help other Democrats win.  Perhaps Hilary thinks that most Democrats would prefer a candidate who was shrewd enough to hoard their money in 2006 for a presidential run rather than help raise money for congressional Democrats around the country.

Her campaign did show some decency in asking their county coordinator to step down after they were caught spreading the false rumor about Obama attending a madrassa and being a secret muslim.  There is some limit to how far the Clinton Camp is willing to go.

I do agree with Hilary Clinton that Character Matters.  I think that it is entirely appropriate at this stage to unearth any questions we might have about our candidate's honesty and integrity.  We do need to ask ourselves if we think that they are honest enough, honorable enough, and forthright enough to be President of the United States.  If we don't ask those questions now, the Republicans will ask them later.

It makes sense that Camp Clinton would choose now as the time to go negative, the polls are not looking good for Hilary.  Chris Bowers who had announced that Obama's campaign was dead has now moved him into a fragile first place.  The campaigns have access to more polls that we do, but I can well imagine that Hilary Clinton and Mark Penn do not like what they see.  Hilary's negatives are already much higher than her opponents'.  Perhaps they thought that these attacks would drive up Obama's negatives but not move hers very much.

Obama's relatively high positives and low negatives among both Democrats and Republicans (39%+ 43%-) is one of his strongest selling points.  It makes sense that the Clintons would be willing to risk a lot to bring them down and improve her ability to compete with him on that issue.

It is too early to tell if Hilary's decision to go negative on Obama has worked.  It has certainly produced lots of attention and headlines.  Most of those are not very favorable to Clinton.  I have not seen any polls that were definitively conducted post these attacks.  It looks like Strategic Visions with release a poll tomorrow which shows Obama up at 32-25-25, when it is released we will see when it was conducted.

Clinton has long told us that she has battled the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" has the scars to show for it and won.  She was promising to fight and fight viciously.  Now she says that she would rather be attacking Republicans in her speeches attacking Democrats.  Hilary Clinton is certainly attacking and attacking viciously, but she is not attacking effectively.  She has lost my confidence in her and her team's ability to take the fight to the Republicans and win.