The coming Clinton implosion

There is lots and I mean lots of chatter about problems in Hillary’s campaign, that the long knives are out for her top advisor Mark Penn, that she failed to seal the deal and now Obama is coming for her. After looking at the latest numbers, all that chatter may well be justified.

Many political observers saw Clinton as the "inevitable" Democratic presidential nominee a few months ago, but Obama has steadily chipped away at her lead in recent months.

In a CNN/WMUR poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and released Wednesday, Clinton and Obama are in a statistical dead heat in New Hampshire, which will hold the nation's first primary January 8. Clinton's 1-point lead over Obama, 31 percent to 30 percent, is within the poll's margin of error of 5 percentage points. Edwards came in third at 16 percent.

Recent polls also show the race tightening nationally. When the Democrats debated last in Las Vegas, Nevada, in November, Clinton led Obama 44 percent to 25 percent, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Now, a CNN/Opinion Research poll shows Clinton with a narrower lead nationally over Obama, 40 percent to 30 percent.

Now that her lead in Iowa and New Hampshire has all but evaporated, expect to hear even more talk of her campaign cratering. More to the point, with Hillary trending down and Obama moving up, she could very well lose the first four contests. If that happens, Hillary is all but done.