Hillary Advisers Fear N.H. Loss

As well they should:

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s strategists, desperate for a win in New Hampshire, have decided against unleashing attack ads against Sen. Barack Obama before Tuesday’s primary, Democratic sources said.

The senator’s aides concluded that negative advertising would not work in the compressed time frame between Iowa and New Hampshire, adding to their worries about their ability to change a media and political environment that is embracing Obama as a historic figure. The campaign also worries that fallout from an all-out attack on Obama could harm Clinton’s plans to turn the Democratic race into a grueling marathon.

Hillary has done few if any interviews with the press since her defeat in Iowa. The Clinton believe in controlling their poll-driven message as much as possible. That strategy is also backfiring. They have nothing left and nowhere to turn:

But Clinton advisers also fear the New Hampshire strategy is a stop-gap measure, with a harsher approach likely if she loses New Hampshire. Conversations with campaign officials make it clear they feel besieged, and unsure how to sap Obama’s momentum.

In Iowa, Clinton aides have said she drew levels of support that might have been enough to win in an ordinary year, but she was swamped in the stunning turnout produced by Obama’s popularity among young voters. While taking pains to insist in public that New Hampshire’s turnout model is very different from Iowa’s, Clinton’s aides say privately that they still fear a similar wave on Tuesday.