Hillary Clinton, perhaps in jest, suggested yesterday that those knocking on doors on her behalf might say “She’s really nice.” What about “She’s not as bad as you think”? There‘s a winning line.

Still, she does seem to be aware of her huge handicap. Once voters have soured on you, it is hard to get back in their good graces quickly. And she needs to be quick. If you believe the poll numbers, she has not yet benefited from some terrible news cycles for Barack Obama. That may be because–as seen in a recent Washington Post-ABC poll–her own unfavorable ratings are high and she is not regarded as trustworthy, a key factor in Presidential preferences.

So she is left with little else to do but push up Obama’s negatives (or watch in awe as he pushes them up all by himself) and to hope that she can climb her way back into voters’ good graces. A combination of Bob-the-Builder competence and self-deprecating humor is a start.