A huge war chest and soaring ratings - Clinton looks beyond the Senate

[IndianaGreen]

A huge war chest and soaring ratings - Clinton looks beyond the Senate

With a win in New York certain, former first lady has rivals asking 'Can she be stopped in 2008?'

Ed Pilkington New York
Tuesday October 31, 2006
The Guardian

One of the cliches that have grown, lichen-like, around Hillary Rodham Clinton over the past six years is that she is very hard working. Like many of the other Hillary cliches (she is ambitious, determined, ruthless) it sounds good but fails to do justice to the extraordinary political operator she has become. Take her schedule in the past five days: on Thursday night she celebrated her 59th birthday not with a candlelit dinner with Bill, but with a fundraiser for 1,100 guests that added $1m (£525,000) to her war chest; on Friday she was off to Syracuse in upstate New York where she campaigned for the Congressional Democrat candidate and spoke in support of biosciences; Saturday it was more campaigning for the candidate in Yonkers, outside New York City, and then back to Manhattan for a fundraiser for Bill's foundation; on Sunday she enjoyed a day of rest by giving a press conference on identity theft; and yesterday she was back on the stump in Rochester.

This nonstop whirlwind activity is the kind of background noise that has begun to give Republicans sleepless nights. Behind their immediate worry that they face a drubbing at the mid-term elections this time next week is an underlying deeper fear, that looks to 2008 and a Hillary presidential race.
"Hillary Clinton - the one that was so easy to dislike, even outright hate - won't be the one running for president," says the rightwing commentator John Podhoretz in his book dedicated entirely to the question: Can She Be Stopped? "She's older and wiser and cleverer - and therefore more dangerous. She's shown the most important quality a successful politician can have: she's learned how to adapt." And that's coming from her political enemy.

The short-term prospects for the junior senator from New York are straightforward enough: next Tuesday she will be handed a second six-year term with a whopping popular endorsement. She stands 65% to 30% in the polls against the hapless Republican, John Spencer.

But then what? With a resounding victory will Hillary stand for president? And if so, will she win?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1935594,00.html

[skipos]

1. I'd vote for her, but I don't think she has a chance against most Repubs. nt

[IndianaGreen]

3. Hillary is right of center

and her Senatorial record is one of mushy moderation, it will be difficult for the GOP to portray her as a dangerous radical, but they will try.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. She's to the Right of =Eisenhower=!

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Flaming Liberal

[skipos]

8. Lefties think is is far right, righties think she is far left

it is the worst of both worlds. Hence, she would lose to virtually any Repub candidate.

[IndianaGreen]

9. We won't know how Hillary will do as a Fall campaigner until she runs

in the primaries. If she remains the pandering and cautious person she has been up to this point, I don't think she will be able to beat the likes of a Gore or even a Kerry.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. She Has A Bold Vision For The Future

Can someone remind me of her bold vision again?

Or of what she's done that's interesting, other than voting for the Iraq war and refusing to admit that it was a mistake, voting for the "Patriot" act, voting for the new draconian bankruptcy law, fleeing from censure, being the sole sponsor of a bill outlawing flag burning, and so forth?

I suppose that she has opened new bridges to Sir Rupert and the rest of the Predator Class, as her "war chest" illustrates - I further suppose that they're giving her the staggering bucks because they're feeling altruistic, not because she'll "get the job done" for them.

[IndianaGreen]

4. She told a small LGBT group that she was "evolving" on same sex marriage

I wonder how many years of Hillary's evolution we will have to wait for her to admit that LGBTs are entitled to the same rights and privileges of citizenship as everyone else.

[CarbonDate]

5. She'll maintain the status quo....

...while fixing the mess George made. The perfect candidate for them. They don't want somebody who'll change how business is done, but they recognize that they're *not* going to get another Republican President in 2008.

The Republicans will throw the race if Hillary is the candidate. They need time to lick their wounds while getting ready for a come-back, and Hillary will keep a light on for them. Nominate a trouble-maker like Russ Feingold, and they'll have to put up a fight.

[Nite Owl]

7. She's at 65%

because the NYS republicans are in total disarray and she has outspent and squashed any progressive opposition. This doesn't mean that she can move out of state, there will be an opponent and they have her thoroughly researched and they are ready. The right wants her to run more than the left or the middle.

[FrenchieCat]

10. Can't she just give up some more of that moola?

don't we need more for '06? :shrug: