Will Shaheen help sink Clinton’s ship?

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All at once, the post-debate spin had turned into: what did Clinton know about the Shaheen comments and when did she know it?

“She said she didn’t know about it, she was sorry, and he accepts her at her word for that,” Axelrod said, recounting a conversation between Obama and Clinton on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport Thursday as they headed to the Iowa debate.

Axelrod dryly called the Clinton apology “a nice gesture, as far as it went.”

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Did Clinton say to Obama that no one in her campaign knew about the Shaheen remarks, a reporter asked.

Who knew about the Shaheen comments?
“She didn’t say that so as far as I know,” Axelrod replied. “She said she didn’t know about it.”

He then noted that “Mr. Shaheen is a pretty significant figure in that campaign, but if they say he was on his own, then that’s their story.”

Do you believe that story, wondered a reporter.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe. I have no way to prove” that Shaheen was carrying out orders from the Clinton high command, Axelrod said.

“Every individual voter in New Hampshire and Iowa and across the country will make their judgment as to whether it was coordinated or not.”

Iowa is a place where an image of “clean” politics is supposedly important to voters, although Iowa political activists can dish the dirt as eagerly as politicos anywhere.

Interviews with Obama’s supporters in the state show that they see him as a noble, inspirational figure, in their view somehow above traditional gritty politics.

Shaheen’s remarks gave Obama an opportunity to lecture Clinton. As Axelrod recounted it, Obama told her, “It’s important for campaigns to send a signal from the top as to what kind of campaign you want to run. If you send a signal that negative campaigning is the fun part of campaigning, and treat it as a sport, then you’re sending a signal down the line that it’s all OK.”

Meanwhile Clinton pollster Mark Penn saw only good things in Clinton’s debate performance Thursday. He stressed her experience and — in an implied contrast to Obama — her readiness to be president.

“When she was asked what she would do in her first year as president, she had a very clear idea of how she would be president and how she would reverse the policies of President Bush. That shows she’s ready on day one to serve as president,” Penn said.

If voters are longing for a candidate of “change,” then Penn said, “Change is not something you can get by wishful thinking or hoping. It’s something like really comes about through work. She’s the candidate with the experience to make change happen.”

Penn’s implication: Obama lacks that experience.

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