Her media advisers had been expecting to exploit the existing "gender gap" by attracting the women voters to support a female presidential candidate with liberal credentials. In this effort, they kept the tenor of her initial campaign more towards social and women-oriented issues and persistently tried to appeal to the women voters to create a differentiation in the presidential race.

For initial few months, this tactic appeared to be working as per Hillary's expectations, but soon Barack Obama entered the fray with a bang and Hillary was forced to overhaul her campaign strategy.

Obama's swift emergence on the scene literally put Hillary Clinton on the back foot. She was not expecting any real challenger from within the ranks of the Democratic Party to cause a major threat to her almost-granted presidential nomination.

Barack Obama, charismatic and outspoken senator from Illinois, is indubitably one of the most potential Democrats with a serious chance to become the first African-American to win the presidency. His outspoken demeanor and blunt style has made him one of the most talked-about political personalities in the American media.

In a very short time, he has emerged as a real challenger to long-time front-runner Hillary Clinton, who was considered to be a sure-fire lock to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama, the first term senator, is a new face in US national politics but has been trying hard to distinguish himself by his stern opposition to the Iraq war. In fact, he has shrewdly used his lack of political experience and extreme opposition to Bush's Iraq policy as the main differentiating point to attract the American voters. It is his astute usage of the Iraq card that has put Hillary Clinton in a tight corner.

Hillary has been consistently challenged to explain her 2002 Senate vote to send US troops to Iraq. Obama and other detractors have been constantly targeting this aspect of Hillary, who, despite all loud rhetoric to end the Iraq war and call back the Marines there, is not been able to satisfy the American voters about her position on the Iraq war.

Very tactfully, Obama has diverted all the attention to Hillary's 2002 vote. So much so that in every public appearance she has made it a point to broach her "new" stance on the Iraq war. To the extent of obsession, Hillary has been working hard to clarify her current anti-Iraq-war stand. But the more she talks about the Iraq war, the more controversy she gathers.

Ironically, in October 2002, when the Congress passed the Iraq war resolution, all the other Democratic senators who are now running for the White House -- excluding Obama who was not member of the Senate at that time -- along with Hillary Clinton voted for the war, but it is only Hillary who is being subjected to open media trial of her view of the Iraq war.

Obama's media managers have very successfully trapped Hillary into the Iraq quandary and she is finding it very difficult to clarify her position. Now she is showing the signs of exhaustion and irritation over the inordinate attention being given to her Iraq policy.

Last month, in one of his campaign stop at New Hampshire, she irritatingly said that voters could choose another candidate if her answers does not suffice. This incongruous gesticulation is reflecting her growing frustration. This is not a good omen for Hillary who has been trying hard to project herself as a dynamic, cool and visionary politician.

Obama has very effectively managed to keep the public attention on Clinton's Iraq views by deliberately fanning the war of words with her over the Iraq war. He has given her a real headache over this matter and diverted her from promoting her actual political and economic agenda.

This is certainly a testing time for her to keep her campaign on the track at this critical phase -- the credit for which also goes to her own over-reaction to her opponents particularly Obama.

Dr. Imran Khalid is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.