WASHINGTON — She was a disciplined candidate atop a polished campaign, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is now mired in the most serious crisis of her 11-month bid for the White House, as a rolling series of missteps threatens to topple her as the Democratic front-runner.
The large crowds that once came to see her have thinned. Trusted campaign surrogates have veered wildly off message. And a campaign operation that had built seemingly impregnable leads over the summer appears to be faltering, prompting former President Clinton to amp up his role as a public spokesman and campaign advisor.
Clinton's chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has wiped out her lead in the crucial early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, according to some polls. Should she lose those contests, gone would be the notion that she is the party's inevitable nominee -- one basis of her appeal as a candidate.
Former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska plans to publicly endorse Clinton next week. But, he says, the momentum may belong to Obama. Kerrey spoke about the "phenomenal pride" black voters felt when Obama made joint appearances last weekend with media titan Oprah Winfrey.
Obama, Kerrey said in an interview, has "either peaked, or he is on a trend line that is going to make him the nominee of the party."
In Hillaryland, as her team calls itself, the message is that there is no cause for worry.
"Politics now is a 24/7 cycle. You go up, you go down," Clinton told reporters in Iowa on Friday. "I think that's all part of a vigorous, dynamic election cycle."
Her campaign began airing a 30-second television spot Friday in Iowa and New Hampshire that showcases Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, and her 88-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham, an effort to strengthen her connection to female voters. A Des Moines Register poll published this month showed that Obama was doing better than Clinton among women likely to vote in the Jan. 3 caucuses.
Also Friday, Clinton's husband sent out a fundraising letter that sought to debunk perceptions that the New York senator would not be a catalyst for real change if she were to win the White House.
More and more, her message is being overwhelmed by unforeseen events.
On Thursday morning, she had to apologize to Obama on the tarmac of Reagan National Airport as they were leaving for a Democratic debate. At issue were the remarks of a New Hampshire campaign advisor, Bill Shaheen, who made public his concerns about Obama's drug use in his youth. Shaheen quit the Clinton campaign later in the day.
