Sen. Clinton: Beware the kids of those soccer moms!

With the new year and new election cycle is coming an incredible change. Iowa was the first place we saw a hint of it as 240,000 voters showed up to caucus and gave Barack Obama their support.
The exit poll show a frightening situation. Sen. Clinton, in spite of how much she spent and attempted to connect with women in Iowa, she didn't reach women 18-59. She carried the women over 60 group but that was only good for 3rd place behind Edwards. Sen Clinton does not connect with people under 40 well. Why is the $64,000 question for the Clinton camp. I have a few ideas why:
Maybe the real prospect of extending this war has focused young people on the prospect of dying and the long term costs of waging a war in the terms of lives and dollars. Everyone knows a serviceman or woman. The miss steps of the current administration have cost thousands of lives and cost trillions of dollars. That's money thrown into the Iraq effort that could have been used on Education, Infrastructure or just invested in the next great technology so that we can maintain our edge in the world. Talk of keeping an open ended military presence in Iraq for decades, in an area hostile to Americans means that we will potentially be burying soldiers for years and attempting to pay for the occupation by pulling monies out of other necessary programs. Ultimately, it's the 20 something generation that has to pay that cost in lives and tax money.
It could be that she has worked in the system for 35 years and hasn't been able to change much on her own. I mean think about it: The closest she came to changing the way we did something was her attempt at changing healthcare. Since then she has pulled in a lot of money from the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies. It's hard to think that all of the money she has collected came without strings attached. With no more fire behind that issue from her, it seems that the agent of change has herself been changed by the system.
This isn't the only place where her laboring for change has not panned out. Look at her record on the Iraq war. She does give a considerably good speech on where we have gone wrong in Iraq but has not been able to vote against funding for the war or against attacks on our civil liberties from the Bush Administration. And this is something (her votes) that she has control over. So when asked to step up, she has chosen to keep her seat

Maybe it has to do with the fact that she's not as personable as her husband. Let's face it, Bill is a friendly guy. He's someone you'd like, even if you don't agree with his politics. He was the sax player, adept at changing his position on the fly and making you believe that he was there all along. Sen. Clinton doesn't have the same way of carrying herself. She is far more calculating. She doesn't deviate from script.
So this inability to deviate from script makes it more difficult for Sen. Clinton to adapt to changes in the landscape. When Obama and Edwards pulled ahead of her in Iowa, it was no doubt a shock. Suddenly, her experience wasn't what was being looked for. It was the idea of changing things in Washington. She underestimated that the Democratic electorate is at a critical mass. After seven years of Bush and a year of congressional gridlock, it was time to change the way business was done. She positioned herself as the person who was best suited to run the machinery in place. Iowans showed up with sledgehammers to tear the machinery apart. She now tries to reposition herself as the woman who can really change the machinery but it's hard to campaign for change and the status quo simultaneously.
All told, it's likely that the youth vote that is resurging in the Democratic party will send Sen. Clinton home soon. This is ironic if you think about it: President Clinton had the soccer moms wrapped around his finger. But it seems at least right now that the backseaters in those mini vans don't share the same affinity for his wife.