Ready to Run (Time Magazine Cover Story on Hillary Clinton)

[Herman Munster]

If you ask anyone around Hillary Clinton the question that everyone is asking, the answer comes back in a shot: The freshman Senator from New York is far too busy concentrating on her re-election in November to be giving even a passing thought to 2008. Thank you very much. But politics is ultimately a game of logistics, and the junior Senator is putting the machinery in place for a campaign that looks far grander than a re-election cakewalk in New York.

All it will need is for someone to throw the switch. Against virtually nonexistent opposition for her Senate seat, she is raising money as though she were in the fight of her life, bringing in more than $33 million. What's left over--which might easily be $10 million or more--could be the seed money for a presidential campaign. And as her husband did the year before launching his 1992 bid for the presidency, she has been putting together the intellectual pieces of a campaign agenda in a series of centrist, high-fiber speeches around energy policy, the economy, privacy and even rural issues.

Her political operation has grown to an army of 32 full-time employees, plus 10 from her Senate office who draw part of their salary there and 13 consultants who are building, among other things, a national direct-mail operation. She recently added an Internet guru to their ranks.

And offering his services for free is the best Democratic political strategist on the planet: Bill Clinton is "thinking about all the time," says one of Hillary's advisers. "He's thinking about it and talking to a lot of people, promoting Hillary. This is something he is very focused on."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229103,00.html

Note: You need to watch a short ad to read the whole article for free.

[Jim Sagle]

1. That's the corporate plan - fluff her until she gets the nom.

Then snuff her.

[Herman Munster]

2. $33 million is what struck me

$33 MILLION!!!!

And she hasn't even declared yet, she could raise $100 million in just the primaries when she declares. Nobody else in the democratic party can raise that much money.

[unschooler]

4. Find me a poll that says democrats will nominate her.

Despite her name-familiarity and money, there are probably five or six democrats who poll better than Hillary does, and she's not going to get any more votes than she has right now. We NEED a woman in the White House, but Hillary is not the one to do it.

[Herman Munster]

5. from the Time article

Her strategists point out that all she would have to do in November 2008 is win every state John Kerry did, plus one. They consider Ohio and Florida her best opportunities. And there is plenty of encouraging news for her in the latest TIME poll. More than half of those surveyed--53%--said they had a favorable impression of her; she registered higher than the other most familiar names in the potential Democratic field, Al Gore (49%), John Edwards (46%) and John Kerry (45%). Her negative ratings (44%) were lower than either Kerry's or Gore's. Edwards generated fewer negative reviews (31%), but 23% of those polled said they didn't know enough about him to have an opinion one way or the other. In hypothetical matchups with the preseason G.O.P. favorite, John McCain, Hillary is the only big-name Democrat to make a real race of it, with McCain edging her by just 2 points among registered voters. By comparison, McCain would trounce Kerry by 10 points and Gore by 9.

[Redneck Socialist]

7. Ugh. What of the states she will lose that Kerry won?

If she gets the nomination (which I doubt) I'd put money on her losing NH, Pennsylvania, probably Michigan, and maybe Maine. What states would she pick up to replace those?

[unschooler]

8. This isn't really news.

Her strategists point out that all she would have to do in November 2008 is win every state John Kerry did, plus one.

True of any candidate.

Her lack of negatives has to do with her relative quiet over the past few years. If she were nominated, the swiftboaters would be out in force.

In hypothetical matchups with the preseason G.O.P. favorite, John McCain, Hillary is the only big-name Democrat to make a real race of it, with McCain edging her by just 2 points among registered voters. By comparison, McCain would trounce Kerry by 10 points and Gore by 9.

I wonder when those "match up" polls were done. I don't know anybody who is excited about Hillary.

I guess before she's crowned, I want to see evidence that democrats support her.

[Botany]

3. Please

What about the Time magazine cover with Zarqawi and the slash over his face?

Back in July?

[Captain Hilts]

6. So long as the 'M' in time doesn't appear as red horns over her head like

last time...