Just Keep Truckin'

JUST KEEP TRUCKIN'....Whatever the real reason, the storybook reason for Hillary Clinton's victory in New Hampshire appears to have hardened into concrete: She won because she finally displayed some emotion and showed voters her "human side." The LA Times rounds up the conventional wisdom as well as anyone:

Campaign activists here suggest that the election shifted, at first imperceptibly, in Saturday night's debate when John Edwards and Barack Obama ganged up on her and when Clinton was faced with another blunt question about her likability.

The shift became more noticeable Monday, when Clinton momentarily welled with tears — though she did not go off-message — at a gathering on the campaign's closing day. Television pictures of the event broadcast endlessly through election day.

"It made her seem like a person getting picked on, and she responded the way a real person would," said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire poll. That rare break in Clinton's composure — and the chord it struck in voters — was particularly compelling to women....

Whatever. It's not the worst thing in the world. But I sure hope that the Clinton campaign doesn't learn the wrong lesson from this and start thinking up dozens of ways to "humanize" Hillary over the next couple of weeks. I don't think I could stand that. And there's a pretty good chance it would backfire anyway. So here's my plea to Hillaryland: don't go there. Just don't. Please.