Did New York Senator and aspiring 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton turn the ugly hostage crisis at her campaign headquarters to her advantage — a classic case of getting a lemon and making lemonade?

The Friday incident at Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, N.H. campaign office ended happily. And some pundits think that had placed Clinton into a new framework where she could have looked powerless or Presidential. The verdict: she came out of it with a stronger image. The Politico:

And as soon as it ended, Clinton took full advantage of the opportunity she had unexpectedly been handed.

In her New Hampshire press conference, she stood before a column of police in green and tan uniforms. She talked of meeting with hostages. She mentioned that she spoke to the state’s governor about eight minutes after the incident began.

The scene was one of a woman in charge.

“It looked and sounded presidential,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “This was an instance of the White House experience of this campaign. They knew how to handle this.”

That the crisis was outside Clinton’s control gave it a rare quality in this era of hyper-controlled politicking, Sabato added.

“What’s most important about it is that it’s not contrived,” he said. “It’s a real event and that distinguishes it from 99 percent of what happens in the campaign season.”

….“Voters look for opportunities to see how candidates react in crisis,” Sabato said. “And this was a mini crisis.

Larry Sabato is one of The Moderate Voice’s favorite analysts and as close to an authentic political psychic as America has in terms of accuracy. When Sabato speaks, if you want to understand what is likely to happen next, you need to listen. His track record on political matters is excellent.

And he is correct: part of a candidates task — and difficulty — is to find ways that convince voters in other ways besides the utterings coming out of their mouths. Being seen in a new context is VITAL.

The Hillary haters (in both parties) are sure to pooh-pooh the whole thing and dismiss her comments as strategic, dissect the event and say it was trivial in the end, but in fact the vast majority of voters don’t accept impressions based on the personal hatreds of partisans, people within in a candidates’ own party, or bloggers on all sides (including this site’s and yours truly) who seemingly drink Monster each day before they sit down and write.

Why is Rudy Giuliani such a big political hit? YES…He cleaned up NYC. But before 911 his political career seemed to be on the downswing. The moment, the context and how he responded to it at that moment and the video images thereof is why he is running this year.

President George W. Bush early on seemed to be a tepid President with poll numbers that sorely needed a boost of political Viagra. Then 911 happened, and he was placed in a series of televised contexts responding to it.

So it WILL have some impact on the Hillary Clinton imagery which means some voters — and perhaps even some in the news media — even unintentionally the news media will treat her with new respect. The Politico again:

Clinton’s campaign has long been dogged by key questions: Is she authentic, does she genuinely have the experience to be president and is the country ready for a woman as commander-in-chief — especially during wartime?

“She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president as an internship just doesn’t make any sense,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, said in one campaign ad.

That statement is now harder to sell, due to the media narrative. The AP:

When the hostages had been released and their alleged captor arrested, a regal-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis.

The image, broadcast just as the network news began, conveyed the message a thousand town hall meetings and campaign commercials strive for — namely, that the Democratic presidential contender can face disorder in a most orderly manner.

“I am very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well,” she declared as she stood alone at the microphone.

Little more than three hours later, just in time for the 11 p.m. local news, Clinton reaffirmed that perspective. In New Hampshire, she embraced her staffers and their families, and lauded the law enforcement officials who brought a siege at her local campaign headquarters to a peaceful conclusion.

It was a vintage example of a candidate taking a negative and turning it into a positive. And coming just six weeks before the presidential voting begins, the timing could hardly have been more beneficial to someone hoping to stave off a loss in the Iowa caucuses and secure a win in the New Hampshire primary.

Indeed: next to being seen within an image context, timing is primary in American politics.

So, today, Hillary Clinton resumes her campaign, and although media images are fleeting, public impressions of political context do linger. So she resumes a campaign, but it is not quite the same campaign.

WEBLOG OPINION: There is lots of it HERE.

Most notable MUST READS from varying viewpoints (many of which do NOT agree with this post but make their arguments quite well):

–Ann Althouse

–The American Street

–Just One Minute

–Ed Morrissey

–The New York Times’ excellent The Caucus Blog.