Up until Hillary was forced to re-calibrate because of Obama’s phenomenal success and to start denigrating the Senator from Illinois, she had run a good campaign. In my estimation, Clinton did a much better job than she is given credit for. I was turned off by her negative campaign style after Obama pulled off his miraculous string of victories. But, prior to that point, the Clinton campaign was quite formidable. She just ran into an amazing campaigner in Barack Obama, who upstaged her at every turn. Lincoln Mitchell has a post on the Huffington Post, which sums it up quite nicely.
Had Obama failed to raise more money than Hillary Clinton, not won in Iowa, not surprised many by consolidating African American support early in the campaign, not proven to be the most exciting Democratic candidate in at least a generation, encountered a major crisis earlier, or not responded to the first major crisis faced by his campaign with an extraordinary speech, Clinton would have likely won the nomination. Clinton’s campaign was prepared for everything; everything except Barack Obama and a campaign that exploited her least defended vulnerabilities, while engaging and mobilizing primary voters beyond what anybody expected.
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