Hillary Bashing Put Her in Favorable Light

Jan. 9, 2008 — -- Barack Obama and John Edwards are finding out what others have learned in the past: It doesn't pay to upset Hillary Clinton.

Clinton's surprise comeback came after a debate in which Obama and Edwards appeared to have become a tag team to criticize Clinton, triggering an outburst by the former first lady eager to defend herself against accusations that she is the candidate for the status quo.

A day later, Clinton was on the verge of tears as she described her "passion" for the country. Both moments were replayed throughout the 24 hours leading up to the New Hampshire vote.

"It's been a long-standing trend," said ABC political contributor Matthew Dowd. "Clinton does better in voters' minds when she is on the defense. She always does best when she looks to be ganged up on or under siege."

"[Edwards and Obama] fed right into her underdog fighter mode," said Dowd.

"There's no doubt that when there's this relentless bashing of Clinton -- like what was occurring on page one of most newspapers in New Hampshire (on Tuesday) -- there was this notion that she was through and done and stick a fork in her," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion poll. "It put her into a victim role that creates some sympathy."

Clinton won the New Hampshire primary with 39 percent of the vote, fueled by an outpouring of support from women.

Clinton has benefited from sympathy before, most noticeably when she debated Republican rival Rick Lazio in the 2000 New York Senate race.

Clinton's popularity soared -- while Lazio's plummeted -- after Lazio stomped across the stage to Clinton's podium, repeatedly insisting that she sign a "ban on soft money" pledge.

Clinton was clearly taken aback by the in-your-face tactic, but held her ground and insisted on a handshake rather than a signature.

Within days, her poll numbers rose over 50 percent for the first time in her campaign in the Quinnipiac Polling Institute survey that had been tracking the race. She went on to easily defeat Lazio.

Clinton's demeanor during her time as First Lady -- especially during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and its aftermath -- is another situation where bad news was actually good news for Clinton in the polls, analysts have said.

The Emotional Payoff

"In the impeachment scene Clinton emerged as a much more favorable person during the period in the victim role," said Marist's Miringoff. "But the most telling was the incident with Lazio, it created a gender gap. She stands her ground and that's not lost on voters. It creates some sympathy and it softens her."

"It gave her a chance later to prove she is likeable," added Miringoff. "It humanizes her in ways she doesn't seem to be able to do herself when she's campaigning."

Some say the idea that Clinton is playing victim may be going overboard.

Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said Clinton's surge in popularity following the debate with Lazio may have been more about him than her.

"It wasn't so much [a reaction] to her as a victim but because women saw Lazio as a man picking on a woman," said Carroll. "It was a matter of [Lazio] doing something that most people didn't approve of."

Will 'Playing Victim' Work and For How Long?

"Clinton knows how to play the victim effectively; she's had a lot of practice," Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told ABC News.com. "But in the general electorate it won't work nearly as well. People want a leader in a president and they don't want someone who is playing the victim."

"But [the Clinton campaign] will stop doing it when it stops working," added Sabato. "These are the Clintons. They know politics well."

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