Are the Wheels Coming Off?

It's a fair question to ask of the Hillary Clinton campaign today, a day when the candidate choked back tears at a roundtable event in New Hampshire, and polls in the state have turned decidedly in her opponent's favor.

Let's first go to the campaign moment everyone is talking about.

During a discussion with voters today, the weight of the polls, the loss in Iowa and the unrelenting campaign schedule seemed to bring Clinton nearly to tears.

The video is available here. An Associated Press story containing Clinton's comments is here.

Meanwhile, polls taken since Barack Obama's Iowa win show Clinton trailing the Illinois senator by anywhere from 1 point to 13 points in New Hampshire. The poll showing the 13-point lead was released today by USA Today and Gallup. The average lead for Obama in 11 polls tracked by Real Clear Politics and conducted from Friday through Sunday is 7.7 points.

The USA Today/Gallup poll also shows Obama pulling even with Clinton nationally - which is a jump in the neighborhood of 15 or 20 points from polls taken in the recent past.

In another sign of trouble for the campaign, The Washington Post reported today Clinton is no longer taking input from advisers. Instead she's the one determining the day-to-day message and handing staffers their marching orders.

And Time magazine reports today that money - of all things - is becoming a problem for the Clinton campaign.

I'd like to go back to the moment Clinton's emotions nearly spilled over and invite you again to take a look at the clip.

I have deliberately stayed away from the blogosphere until I finish this post because I want to make sure my judgments are my own. I'm sure Drudge is having a great time and Rush Limbaugh must have been beside himself this afternoon on the radio.

But from where I sit, Hillary's "human" moment is the moment I've been waiting to see from her since she informally began her campaign around Thanksgiving of '06.

It was clear these words weren't scripted or vetted, that they were heartfelt and filled with emotion. It's the Hillary Democrats have been hoping to see for so long now.

It would be shame for her if the real Hillary stood up too late to do herself any good.