Article: Press Starting to Show Skepticism of Hillary

This story from The Politico points to increased criticism of Hillary by the mainstream press:

After months of mostly rosy portrayals of her campaign’s political skill, discipline and inevitability, the storyline shifted abruptly to evasive answers, shady connections and a laugh that sounded like it was programmed by computer.

[...]This week’s stories, however, all in various ways highlighted what her strategists and independent analysts have recognized as a genuine challenge for her in 2008: overcoming perceptions that she is a politician so infused with ambition and artifice that she can not connect with ordinary voters.

[...]In the same issue of the Times, columnist Frank Rich pondered whether she is too cautious and contrived in a piece headlined, “Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore?” On the facing page, columnist Maureen Dowd argued that, “Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar.”

The day before, columnist Gail Collins had called one of Clinton’s answers from Wednesday’s debate “an excellent example of how to string together the maximum number of weasel words in one sentence.”

[...]And Washington Post columnist David S. Broder complained about her “dodginess” in the debate, and many outlets mocked her answer to who she would root for in a Cubs-Yankees World Series: “Would probably have to alternate sides.”

Even Jon Stewart bared fangs on “The Daily Show,” splicing together clips from Sunday morning shows that his network, Comedy Central, calls “creepy delayed laughter” on a segment called “Hillary’s Laugh Track.” He suggested the candidate was bionic.

The free ride might be over. This is why I'm arguing that Hillary won't win the nomination. Her laugh is reminiscent of that from Howard Dean, which destroyed his candidacy:

The caustic critiques were especially striking because they followed eight days of priceless, overwhelmingly positive press surrounding the rollout of Hillary Clinton’s “American ealth[sic]Choices Plan.” Clinton granted at least 19 lengthy interviews to networks, columnists and reporters, producing headlines like “Why it’s better this time” on the cover of Time magazine.

Then there is the question of her electability:

Other campaigns note that Hillary Clinton’s problems go beyond New York and Washington mandarins. In the Rocky Mountain West, there are questions about her electability and polarization, raised in a Sunday piece in the Los Angeles Times.

The article cited “huge negatives” for Clinton in this region: “The New York senator and Democratic front-runner was by a wide margin the most unpopular of 13 potential presidential candidates in Montana. … Recent polls in Colorado, Nevada and Arizona have found similar distaste for Clinton.”