The seasoned politician and former Cabinet member had several days to formulate a response to “email-gate.” But her answer was that she had combined her personal and official emails onto a private server for “convenience.” And, she added, she would not turn over that server for inspection.

The press just wasn’t buying it. To run the sort of larger-than-life campaign that Clinton seems to want to run, she has to fit the larger-than-life bill. The reason Barack Obama was treated like LeBron is that he sort of was LeBron. His campaign racked up only a handful of gaffes or mistakes. He always seemed to pull things out when he needed to. He hit the three-pointers when it mattered. This created a virtuous cycle: He did amazing things, and the press treated him as such. If Obama had had as many problems as Clinton has, and had responded in the same way, his campaign would have gone nowhere.

If you followed twitter Tuesday, it is safe to say that Clinton will not be getting the sort of treatment she needs to run a celebrity campaign just by virtue of being Clinton. TMZ and Gawker, which are generally thought of as having a liberal tilt, asked a number of questions. SNL lit into her in a way that it arguably still hasn’t for Obama. Again, I don’t think this is because these outlets are inherently pro-Obama. He just played a role almost flawlessly, and reaps the benefits from time to time.

She will have to earn favorable coverage, and she isn’t doing it so far. If it keeps up, not only will she not have an advantage in how the “intangibles” stack up, she might have a disadvantage that pushes her below what the fundamentals suggest.