How can Hillary escape the trap? She probably can never convince people that she's a straightforward politician of courage, but she certainly can convince them that John Edwards is a fraud and that Barack Obama has no experience, no accomplishments and no defining issues, beyond his vaporous abstractions.
This negative strategy, too, has costs. If you didn't like Hillary when she was pretending to be pleasant, just wait until she takes the bark off the first African-American ever to have a plausible chance of becoming president. The good news for Hillary is that the Clinton team excels at demolition jobs -- congratulations, Mr. Obama, you might have just become the Ken Starr of 2007.
The hit against Hillary as a triangulator wouldn't have as much punch if her husband hadn't lived off poll-driven, situational politics for eight years. In a general election, a key point of thematic contention will be whether a Hillary presidency will represent change or -- as Republicans will argue -- an unwelcome return to the 1990s. Here, too, Obama is making the Republicans' case, saying that we shouldn't spend "the next four years refighting the same fights we had in the 1990s."
Hillary now faces the potential of a more drawn-out, and much more damaging, nomination fight than seemed possible even three weeks ago. If Obama needs more material, surely Rush Limbaugh will be eager to provide.