Analysis: Clinton's Double-Edged Fight

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks during the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Presidential Forum Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007, in Waterloo, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) (M. Spencer Green - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says she feels lucky to be the target of White House criticism. And while the barbs might bring her good fortune _ and campaign dollars _ in the short term, they also could remind voters about her weaknesses come Election Day.

In the race for the Democratic nomination, any presidential candidate would relish engaging the White House in a little one-on-one. For Clinton, it increases the perception that she is the inevitable nominee and could help galvanize anti-Bush Democrats to her side.

But voters also are hearing what the White House has to say _ that she's fatally flawed, weak on national security and unconscionable in her political criticism. And perhaps most threatening to her in the primary campaign is the idea that she's too polarizing to win the presidency, said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus.

"There is a long-term danger to her and to the campaign to laugh it off and say it's a good thing because electability is a challenge that the Clinton campaign has to face," Backus said.

"In a primary, it's like getting a $1 million check from Publisher's Clearing House when it comes to Internet fundraising," Backus said. "The problem for Hillary Clinton is that she may have to use $750,000 of it to challenge the electability argument."

And that's just the argument that White House political adviser Karl Rove was making.

"There is no front-runner who has entered the primary season with negatives as high as she has in the history of modern polling," Rove said on the Rush Limbaugh radio show earlier this week. "There's nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position."

Said Sara Taylor, a former Rove deputy and one-time White House political director: "It may be good for her base, but short-term gain could prove to have long-term pain for her. This episode reminds independent and soft Republican voters what they dislike about Clinton."

Rove's numerous criticisms of Clinton were paired with a rebuke from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Tuesday. Perino was questioned about a Clinton ad in which she says struggling families and U.S. troops are "invisible" to President Bush.

Perino initially said she wouldn't comment _ fitting with Bush's reluctance to weigh into the presidential campaign _ and referred questions to the Republican National Committee. But then she launched into a critique of the spot, calling it outrageous and absurd, and of Clinton, saying it was unconscionable for her to say such a thing.

Perino said Thursday she won't do it again.

"We're going to let the RNC answer anything further. At this point in the game, it's all politics coming from those camps," she said.