Hillary Clinton and the Price of Inevitability

In Iowa, Hillary Clinton has begun a bus tour she calls the "Middle Class Express" to tell voters she cares abut hard-working Americans. Meantime, conventional wisdom has shifted in her direction and the acknowledgement that she's overcome years of personal scrutiny. The Boston Globe reports that New Hampshire voters are "warming unexpectedly to Clinton." She's leading in the latest Iowa poll. Today's New York Times calls here the "presumptive Democratic presidential nominee." But as her lead grows in fund raising and Democratic public opinion polls, some Republicans are rubbing their hands. With the Iowa caucuses still three months away, does being the acknowledged front-runner create a new set of vulnerabilities? Have those old, negative images been erased forever?