Bill, Hillary and expectations in Iowa

(The Politico) - Former President Bill Clinton tried to lower expectations today for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, suggesting at a Starbucks here in Des Moines that Iowa was not make-or-break for her presidential campaign.

“I didn’t win a race until I got to Georgia,” Bill Clinton, in jeans and an overcoat, told a small group of reporters. “You just got to keep going. It is a long process.”

With the Iowa caucus just hours away, there’s little else to do but wait — and speculate. The comments from Bill Clinton are just one piece of a massive pre-spin operation being deployed by all the campaigns to manage expectations.

Clinton defended his wife’s decision to compete in Iowa, a question that has been raised with increasing frequency as Sen. Clinton finds herself in a volatile three-way fight with Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards.

“I think she needed to show she wasn’t afraid,” Clinton said. “I am pleased she did.”