![Deja Vu For Hillary Clinton Heading Into Iowa [screen shot GOP YouTube]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Deja-Vu-For-Hillary-Clinton-Heading-Into-Iowa-screen-shot-GOP-YouTube.jpg "Deja Vu For Hillary Clinton Heading Into Iowa [screen shot GOP YouTube]")
Ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucus, Hillary Clinton could be in for a repeat of 2008.
In 2008, Clinton was the presumed nominee similarly to now, but Barack Obama and John Edwards were her competition. The final ’08 Des Moines Register poll indicated that Clinton trailed Obama 25 percent to 32 percent. When the actual voting in Iowa rolled around, Obama took home 37.6 percent of the vote, compared to Clinton’s 29.5 percent. Iowa in ’08 was a major loss for Clinton, an impediment to momentum, and a sign that the nomination process would not be a coronation.
Instead of wrapping up the nomination shortly, the Democrats slugged it out from the Iowa caucuses beginning in January all the way into June, when Obama finally wrapped up the nomination.
Fast forward to 2016, and again it’s looking less like a coronation for Clinton and more like a slugfest. In the final poll before the 2016 Iowa caucus, the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll indicates that Clinton is in a statistical tie with Bernie Sanders, polling at 45 percent versus Sanders’ 42 percent. Monday night could be the definitive answer whether or not Clinton is in for another long campaign into the early summer.
In the next primary stop in New Hampshire, prospects of a Clinton victory do not look good. Clinton is trailing Sanders by 14 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
This election cycle, the Clinton campaign amassed a $100 million dollar war chest but it looks like money alone will not save her. According to The New York Times, as much as 90 percent of Clinton’s finances are being spent in Iowa and her New York campaign headquarters, leaving a possible vulnerability to a hypothetical surging Sanders later on in the Democratic Primaries.
If Clinton ends up losing Iowa, tremors in the Democratic nominating calendar and flashbacks to 2008 may be felt. Instead of having a limited debate schedule like the Democratic National Committee and its chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz had planned for, even before votes are cast in Iowa Clinton and Sanders have agreed to four additional debates, extending the debate process. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Agree To Four More Debates)
Capitalizing off of gloomy signs that Clinton is facing, the Republican National Committee released an advertisement ahead of Iowa showing a Clinton lookalike thrashing around in a bed having a nightmare. In the 2008 cycle, the Clinton campaign ran an ad in which a phone rings in the White House at 3:oo a.m., portraying Clinton as the most qualified and experienced person to handle the problem on the other end of the line. At the time, it was a direct shot at the young senator, Barack Obama.
The RNC’s ad includes comments from newscasters and pundits with dire warnings of what Clinton may face. CNN’s Jake Tapper is heard saying, “She is out there repeating the same arguments [from 2008].”
Audio from 2008 of Clinton claiming, “What the question is, is who has the experience we need to make the changes we want” is played.
The ad then plays Clinton arguing, in 2016, “I think that I have the experience, the qualifications to tackle [the issues America faces]…”
In the ad, Tapper is then heard saying, “These voters literally head this eight years ago from her.”
After Tapper finishes talking in the ad, the Clinton lookalike is shown jolting up out of bed and gasping for breath. The ad concludes: “For Hillary, it’s deja vu in Iowa.”
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