Romney, Clinton No New Traction

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/clinton-romney.html

ABC News' Rick Klein analyzes the ABC/WMUR/Facebook debates:

The two candidates with the most riding on New Hampshire lost the most ground when the stakes were highest Saturday night.

Before a national television audience in ABC -- and in the only major marking point between Iowa and New Hampshire -- former governor Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., did nothing to slow the momentum of the candidates who at this moment pose the biggest threats to their candidacies.

Romney discovered the backlash of all those attacks he's been leveling. The man who soared above the field in early exchanges was suddenly under siege -- and found himself outflanked by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who appears to be on a glide path to winning New Hampshire for a second time. It hardly mattered that Iowa's winner, former governor Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., was a non-entity on stage.

And Clinton had one of those debate moments that campaign consultants have nightmares about. She looked as frustrated and beleaguered as she no doubt feels at this moment, defending herself with an indignity that suggested a level of confusion about why she's no longer the campaign frontrunner.

"I want to make change but I've already made change," she said. "I'm not just running on a promise of change -- I'm running on 35 years of change."

She's right -- and she pointed out Obama's inconsistencies with a fervor that suggests an eager student who's read all the books. But those charges -- while certain to be developed in news coverage in the days to come -- were lost in their own haze Saturday night, amid Obama's elevation and former senator John Edwards' passion.

Obama's "working majority for change" gives voters something to believe in and cast ballots for. Clinton has the nugget of an effective argument, in making her experience about change, but it's getting late to develop it into something that stands in contrast to what Obama is offering.

Both Romney and Clinton know that a loss in New Hampshire would be devastating. They had an evening to change the dynamics in the tightest of windows between the first two contests. But the evening passed with their opponents' momentum intact.