Trapdoors and treasure-troves

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

The Clinton campaign unveiled a new 30-second television ad today to air in Iowa and New Hampshire. The economic message to the middle class has a general election feel to it, as it is focused squarely on President Bush.

"The Bush economy is like a trapdoor," Clinton tells a packed audience. "Too many families are one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment, one medical diagnosis, away from falling through and losing everything."

It appears to have been filmed Tuesday night at Salem High School in New Hampshire, where we noticed printouts on the walls notifying voters the campaign was filming the evening for commercial purposes.

In other news, there was a breathtaking story in the Los Angeles Times today that raises questions about the scruples of Clinton's fundraising operation even after the Norman Hsu scandal. The Times found at least 150 residents of New York's Chinatown who had written huge checks to the Clinton campaign, often $1,000 to $2,000. Some were hopeful that if she wins, Clinton would help reunite immigrant families. But some said they'd been pressured by local Chinese-American organizations to give. Many lived in run-down apartments or did not live at their given addresses at all.