Media Framing

Look, the Halperins of the world want this to be a close race. But it was pretty obvious at the last debate that Hillary wasn't going to simply sit back while the others took swings at her. She's been hitting back for much of the last wek and it's only going to intensify. What Halperin should say, is that a single poll now gives journalists license to interpret every Hillary attack as defensive and not offensive. More and more I get the feeling this sustained negative storyline and framing by the media is going to be around a while longer even if several serious new polls suggest she is in fact still up in Iowa. The narrative is set now for at least another two weeks. This is Hillary's test, to survive these weeks with her campaign on point and in tact and moving back up so that eventually when the Halperins and Russerts reflect on the Conventional Wisdom again they will see a Hillary looking stronger, having weathered a tough portion of the nomination fight in tact and in some ways stronger, etc., etc., etc.

Still, as Markie-Mark rather presumptously reminds us:

Make no mistake, however: we now have on our hands two very competitive presidential nomination battles.