RUN, HILLARY, RUN

The Candidate That Dare Not Speak Her Name (Craig Crawford, April 24, 2003, Congressional Quarterly)

Whether you love Clinton or hate her, she is the only genuine celebrity in the Democratic Party, a rock star to her fans and money in the bank for ratings-driven media. She is the only Democrat in Congress known to the public simply by her first name. She is the only Democrat with White House ambitions who can instantly inflame what she once famously called the "right wing conspiracy."

John Kerry recently had to declare his own jihad on President Bush to make news, calling for "regime change" in the White House. Hillary could get more coverage by muttering the words Iowa or New Hampshire within earshot of a reporter.

Nearly every time I have seen Clinton or her husband introduced to speak, there is a mention of her expected candidacy for the White House.

Bill Clinton loves it. Speaking in Puerto Rico recently, he took the speculation to a really weird place. His adoring introducer said the former president has "a Latin soul" and noted that even though Bill could not run again, his wife could. Clinton laughed, saying, "Since I have a Latin soul, it looks like I'll be the first Latin-American first lady."

It is a rare and wondrous thing for politicians to have their ambitions publicized by others without having to lower themselves to openly seeking higher office. Without ever declaring their intentions, the Clintons have the press corps and political junkies assuming she will run for president someday. For now, all of official Washington is convinced she will run in 2008.

The Clinton master plan, as described by acolytes, is to wait until the stain of Clinton scandal is a distant memory and pounce again once the eight years they expect of a Bush presidency makes the nation yearn for a Democrat.

But what if that master plan, so widely promoted by Clinton loyalists, is a ruse?

Consider this 2004 scenario: Tell the world you are not running and stand aside while a lackluster Democratic field scrambles to the left in a mass pander to party interest groups that yields little more than fodder for jokes on Leno and Letterman. Then quietly encourage a "Draft Hillary" movement. And just before the New Hampshire filing deadline this fall, announce a listening tour of New York to ask voters if you should run to save the party from certain defeat.

The media burst would look like one of those bunker-busting mushroom clouds over Baghdad.

We're on record as saying she's definitely running. Nothing we've seen from the rest of the field has caused us to question this wisdom. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2003 10:29 AM