7 Questions as the Race for the White House Accelerates

By Dan Balz
Washington Post

Is the Clinton campaign a true juggernaut -- or is that just what she wants everyone to believe?

Not a juggernaut, but it is the best campaign on the block right now. That's a view widely shared among Democratic strategists and emphatically asserted by some veteran Republicans sizing up the race.

"Hillary is for real, and will be difficult for any of her Democratic opponents to derail," wrote Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster who jointly conducts the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. "She simply doesn't make mistakes and is running a pretty disciplined campaign."

Whit Ayres, another GOP pollster, put it this way in an interview: "Barack Obama has run a good campaign given his level of experience, and he is obviously a very bright man. But he is no match for Hillary Clinton and her team. They are too experienced, too professional and too tough for a candidate who has never run a serious campaign for any office before."

But no one is ready to call the Democratic race for Clinton at this point. The reasons, as outlined by both her supporters and detractors, are numerous. First, nobody wraps up a nomination by Labor Day. Ask Howard Dean about that.

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