Will Hillary Run For Re-Election to the Senate?

Kitty pointed me to this John Podhoretz column speculating that Hillary might decide not to stand for her Senate seat in 2006.

"You miss all those votes" if you try for the party's presidential nomination while still serving in the Senate, the official said. And, the official added, you don't want to be put in the position in which John Kerry found himself in 2003, when the Massachusetts senator felt compelled to vote against the $87 billion package of reconstruction and military aid for Iraq and Afghanistan because he was fighting for his life against the antiwar candidate Howard Dean.

Now you know how it is; it's easy to speculate now that Hillary might not run; it fills up a column now and nobody will remember a year from now if she does decide to run.

Hillary: Nothing to Fear

That's Eric Fettman's assessment of the Republican's chances of knocking her off with Governor Pataki in 2006 as a preemptive strike against her 2008 presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton is in great political shape — and has been ever since she took office.

After all, running as a rookie, she won by a solid 12 points; her 55 percent of the vote equaled the total won by the famously popular Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his last election.

Plus, no New York Democrat has ever been defeated for re-election to the U.S. Senate since direct elections for the office began in 1913.

I think he's right there. But Rush points out that the Republicans don't have anything to fear from her in 2008, either.

The important thing is to get these judges confirmed. Stop thinking about Hillary. I'm not concerned what she does. I'm not sitting here afraid of what she will or won't do. Doesn't matter to me. I don't think any of the rest of you ought to be afraid of Hillary Clinton. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Rush! Hillary!" I don't care. I don't care, folks. I am not afraid of Mrs. Clinton and I don't think it's wise for anybody else to be. We're trying to get these judges confirmed. We're trying to move an agenda here. There's no question. We're trying -- you know, these people have lost elections. They don't have the right to act as the majority on these matters, and if they want to try to use their filibuster as a minority veto, then there's reaction to that.

Hat Tip: Kitty

This Should Give You A Chill

Richard Vigilante writes on how Hillary can win.

"People aren't that stupid," I declaimed, in my most stirringly populist tones. "You can't play against type just by talking."

"Really?" she [a friend, not Hillary] asked. "Her husband deflated his pro-life opposition just by going around the country mouthing 'safe, legal, and rare.' Then he gave us partial-birth abortion."

"Well that might be a good start," I shot back. "How much does she really care about keeping a tiny percentage of particularly grotesque abortions legal? Why shouldn't a White House-hungry Hillary move on that?"

"Perfect!" she exclaimed. "You are some kind of political genius, you are! Too bad Reagan didn't have you around during the Cold War, we could be having this conversation in Russian!"

Bill Clinton on Iran

I saw this the other day and meant to blog on it, but forgot. Fortunately Kitty jogged my memory.

Here's a little story in Arab News (judge for yourself the credibility) that discusses some rather bizarre statements by Bill Clinton:

Where is the country that Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States, feels ideologically most at home?

Before you answer, here is the condition that such a country must fulfill: It must hold several consecutive elections that produce 70 percent majorities for “liberals and progressives.”

Well, if you thought of one of the Scandinavian countries or, perhaps, New Zealand or Canada, you are wrong.

Believe it or not, the country Bill Clinton so admires is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Iran today is, in a sense, the only country where progressive ideas enjoy a vast constituency. It is there that the ideas that I subscribe to are defended by a majority.”

And here is what Clinton had to say in a recent television interview with Charlie Rose:

“Iran is the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of President Khatami (in 1997). (It is) the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: Two for president; two for the Parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralties. In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own.”

Hillary to the Middle

Deborah Orin's take is spot-on:

THE Oval Office love fest between Bill Clinton and President Bush showed Clinton masterfully doing his trademark triangulating — in a manner that could boost his wife, the presumptive 2008 presidential contender.

When Bill Clinton snuggles up to Bush, he makes himself look like a centrist at the expense of fellow Democrats — who look more extremist by comparison in a new spin on the strategy known as triangulation when Clinton was president. That automatically and conveniently makes Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) look more centrist too.

So there was Bill Clinton at Bush's side, volunteering that Iraq's elections "went better than anyone could have imagined" and warning against any demand that Bush set an exit timetable for Iraq — points sure to enrage liberal Dems.

Hat Tip: Kitty

Hillary: Lose-Lose

That's how Tish Durkin assesses her chances. Writing as Hillary, she says:

Come to think of it, my reputation in some parts as Pure Evil in a Pantsuit may do me nothing but good: If the American heartland is anything like upstate New York—or, please God, the national-level Republicans in 2008 are anything like the New York State ones in 2000, and limit their entire message to the premise that I am one scary bitch—I will get major points just for not spitting fire. And anyway, if I don’t run, what will I do? Stew in the tepid juices of junior minority membership in the Senate? (Which, safely assuming my re-election in ’06, I’ll be perfectly free to do if I run for the White House and lose.)

Pure Evil in a Pantsuit? :) You think Ms Durkin reads Lucianne, where Hillary is commonly referred to as PIAPS (Pig in a Pantsuit)?

I do think she'll get the nomination, if only because her argument is that she has the same last name as the only Democrat to win a presidential election since 1976.

Hillary's Woman Problem

Kitty pointed us to this article which notes that her royal thighness is not all that popular among the ladies:

A WomanTrend poll last month found 25 percent of women said they'd definitely vote for her. But 29 percent wouldn't no matter whom her opponent turns out to be. "A lot of these blue-collar women don't respect her for staying with her husband," a WomanTrend pollster said. "If you can't stand up to a cheating husband who embarrassed you in front of the whole world, how are you going to stand up to Osama Bin Laden?