Should Hillary go negative?

From Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post:

The truth is that if the campaign dynamic doesn't change between now and the Democratic convention in August, it's hard to see how Clinton winds up as the nominee. Obama is the candidate with the momentum, the candidate who has become a movement.

Like it or not, the quickest way to change the shape of a race is to begin drawing stark contrasts (call them comparative, call them negative) over the airwaves.

Contrast/negative advertising gets a bad rap. Many voters blanch at the alleged pettiness of it. But in contest after contest, from the state legislative level to the presidential level, this type of advertising gets results. Voters may not like negative ads, but they tend to at least listen to the charges leveled in them....

There is a major difference, however, between digging into the opposition research book during a debate and doing the same in a broad-based television campaign. And, as the Clinton campaign is no doubt aware, the decision to go negative is freighted with potential landmines for their candidate.

More after the jump...

For starters, voters -- even within the Democratic party -- are far more divided in their feelings about Clinton than they are about Obama. The knock on Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is that they are too political, willing to do or say anything to get elected....

The other risk for Clinton in running a series of contrast ads is that Obama is better funded at the moment and is likely to enjoy that advantage throughout the next month. While the Clinton campaign has made much of the $12 million they have collected online since Feb. 5, it's still hard to imagine they have the sort of campaign cash to "double track" -- run a flight of positive spots as well as a series of negative ads -- in large and expensive states like Ohio and Texas. (Such double-tracking -- although probably impossible -- would allow Clinton to avoid being portrayed as simply a "negative" candidate.) If Clinton did decided to embark on a series of contrast spots, she would have to do so with the understanding that Obama, if he chose to respond, could throw far more financial weight behind his ads....

One Democratic operative said she can win on contrast ads "if it's done correctly." The source added: "Think Mac vs PC ads. Huge attack ads, but make you smile and feel good."

Only problem: Hillary is a PC.