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This article originally appeared on Slate.

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Hillary Clinton opened her remarks at the 37th annual Harkin Steak Fry by talking about the imminent arrival of her daughter's first child and her possible presidential campaign. It was hard to tell which was more pregnant.

Clinton didn't mention her candidacy directly, but in her first visit to the state since her third-place showing in the 2008 caucuses, she made a succession of coy references. "Of course there's that other thing," she said after talking about how she and her husband were consumed with the prospect of their first grandchild. "Well it is true, I am thinking about it, but for today that is not why I'm here. I'm here for the steak." There were a few other nods and winks and Clinton concluded by saying, "Let's not let another seven years go by."

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, for the first time since she finished third there i...

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Clinton praised President Obama and rallied Democrats to turn out for the 2014 midterms during her first public event in Iowa since the 2008 pres...

The audience of 10,000 got the joke. As they filed out, I asked James Hanifen, a World War II veteran, if he thought, based on what he'd heard, that she was running for president. "It's obvious she is. I mean, unless you're really, really dumb."

The Clinton campaign has been conceived and everyone is just waiting around for the birth announcement. That makes it murky to assess the Clinton candidacy. You can hardly judge a couple's parenting skills before the baby arrives. Though that doesn't stop the criticisms. The conventional complaint among Democratic campaign veterans and strategists who are not in the Clinton camp is that she has not developed a message and a rationale for her candidacy. She's running on the fact that it's her turn. Inevitability is deadly for candidates.

That critique is wildly premature. Not only has the official campaign where she could articulate a vision not started, but even when it does, Clinton is a prohibitive front-runner of a kind we have not seen in this century, which means she has time to get her act together.

See more here:
The final days of the unofficial Hillary Clinton campaign