Hillary's running mate race: Sen. Dodd and Gov. Richardson are possibilities

Democrats are increasingly giving evidence that they seem to feel that they have already held their primaries and nominated the former first lady. Neither national debates nor Obama’s increasingly assertive foreign policy proposals seem to weaken her hold on the nomination. Even Edwards’ vocal and effective criticisms of Clinton's ties to special interests appear to do nothing to cut into her lead. Instead, it just keeps on growing.

Have the Democrats, in their hearts, anointed Clinton as their candidate already? Do they regard the criticisms of her fellow candidates as just fissures in a party they are determined to keep united and focused on the objective of defeating President Bush? Are they rallying around their standard-bearer a year before she is awarded their standard?

The Democratic desire to bring the Bush administration to an end and their desperation to terminate the war in Iraq is so polarizing the electoral process that there seems to be little room for primaries anymore. The notion that Democrats compete against one another to find out, at best, who would be a good president and, at worst, which would be most likely to win, seems to becoming increasingly passé. In a sense, the entire primary process, which has dominated presidential selection since 1972, appears to be losing its grip in the face of a determination to rally around the candidate, even if she be anointed, in the first instance, by the established leaders of the party, meeting, these days, in a smoke-free environment to make their choice.

Behind these developments lies a fundamental fact: Hillary has used the last six months, with their ups and downs, to solidify her claim to the Democratic nomination. Repairing her shortcomings in the early primary states, she has now moved out ahead of Edwards in Iowa and added to her lead in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Nationally, she has added about a point each month to her vote share, moving from an average daily rating in the Rasmussen tracking poll of 34 percent in March to 40 percent this month, an amazing vote share in an eight way field of candidates.

As Hillary tightens her grip on the Democratic nomination, it is increasingly evident that Sen. Chris Dodd and Gov. Bill Richardson are using the presidential race to audition for the job of vice president on a Clinton ticket. In recent Democratic debates, Dodd and Richardson have taken shots at Senator Barack Obama, picking up the Hillary campaign mantra that the Illinois senator is too short of experience to “hit the ground running” as Hillary is fond of saying she is able to do.

Memorably, Dodd turned to Obama during a recent debate and intoned that “you can’t learn this job on January 21,” meaning that his colleague lacked the experience and on-the-job knowledge required to become the next president. Why would Dodd bother to attack Obama, the second place challenger, who is, in no way, a threat to the Connecticut senator’s fifth place standing? To audition with the lady down the stage, to apply for the job of her attack dog when the general election gets underway.

In his own way, Richardson is auditioning, too. Running ads in the early primary states, he is able to boast a strong vote share in Iowa and seems to be moving into a convincing fourth place in the national polls, behind Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. Richardson could be a strong candidate for vice president. In a campaign based on expanding the electorate to include previously unheard of numbers of single women, blacks, and Latinos, the Hillary campaign could well use a minority in its No. 2 slot. For his part, Richardson appears to be grooming himself for the spot by joining Dodd in attacking Obama for a lack of experience.

Perhaps the early loading of the primaries, and the consequent move of the nomination process forward into the first half of 2007 is carrying with it a corollary: The race may already be over.

From toe-sucker’s mouth to God’s ear. We will beat Hillary like a rented mule.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

She will be rode hard and put up wet.It matters little which whussy pipped running mate she has.

If Rudy doesn’t get the Republican Nomnation, who will?

Well that depends on what happens with the conservative base of the Republican party over the next 6 months. I think that Thompson and Hunter will give Rudy his walkin' papers.

I hardly believe the polls. They always have been wrong in the past, and essentially are propaganda designed to protect the investments made by big money in the annointed candidate. The annointed candidates do not always win, because there is a high degree of unpredictability in what might happen in the run up to the convention.

And this time there is even a higher than usual unpredictibility factor, because of the split between the RINO faction ( the RNC annointed) and the conservative base that won the last presidential election in 2004, only to find that the RNC dumped the agenda that Congress had been mandated by the electorate.

We won't know until the second night of the convention who the front runners will be. And who they are depends on how the conservative wing of the Republican party swings. If they swing in unison, it will be Thompson /Hunter. If the conservative wing remains divided, it will be Romney/Paul.

I doubt that the convention will take the candidacy of Giulliani seriously, simply because he has too many liabilities as a presidential candidate, and he cannot overcome them, even with the nod from the RNC big wigs, who obviously think he is the best the party has, they certainly wanted him to name his mafia connected Homeland Security nominee to the highest security position in our nation. Would he been better than Chertoff? Well anyone would be, but we don't need mafia hit men doing the CIAs dirty work that the Clintonistas inside the CIA have kept them from doing.

I do not trust the RNC, after what they did with Tom DeLay, and the 5 RINOs whom they supported to derail the conservative agenda from the House, by having those 5 Republican Senators defuse the nuclear option of cutting off filibusters by the Dems on the issue of Supreme COurt appointments. The Dems successfully blocked many conservative judges from the federeal system. That sucks.

I do not trust the RNC in their support of the Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill.Neither do most Republican delegates.

So the question is simply this, "Will the Republican grass roots take back their party?" I am betting they will, simply because too much of the future of our country is riding on it. They must.

And if they do, Giulliani does not stand a snowball's chance in hail of getting nominated. Hunter and Thompson do.

The end game for the Republican candidates is taking shape. The convention won't be pretty, but it will be democracy in action. The delegates are already planning their strategy to take back the Republican party, and Tom DeLay is very active in the back ground on doing just that. May God speed his course.

I will keep rooting for Duncan Hunter. He is the best man for the job, and the best equipped to duke it out with the Dem nominee, who will NOT be Hillary Clinton. The left do not trust her, nor do moderate Democrats. The Dems are scrambling to silence the left, and trying to reposition themselves away from their traitorous Iraq policy, for they know it will lose them the next election, and it may already be too late for them to reposition themselves , as moonbats like Cindy Sheheen keep the left alive in the public eye.

Who ever Joe Leiberman supports will likely get the Dem nomination, and that sure as hail won't be Hillary. Joe does not like her after what she did to him in Nov of 2006 in the run up to the Connecticut election for Senator. Joe won, which goes to show you that there is a bedrock of Dem moderates who control the Dem party. The left does not and have now failed at their bid to control the Democrat party. Just as there is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Republican party, so there is also for the Dems, and the moderates have it still. Their convention will be a mess, either a rigidly controlled continuall scripted robo event, or a blood bath with Michael Moore and Howard Deaniac swinging from the chandeliers.

We WILL beat Hillary like a rented mule if she is nominated, but I don't think she will be.

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