Posted on 07/30/2002 3:01:45 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Although Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has insisted she will not run for the presidency in 2004, her Monday appearance as the keynote speaker at a Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) convention in New York City fueled speculation that she is positioning herself to play an important role in the 2004 race.
The DLC conference for centrist Democrats is seen as one of the must-attend events for presidential hopefuls, although Al Gore reportedly stayed away because he is already the frontrunner in the pool of prospective contenders.
Sens. Tom Daschle (S.D.), Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), John Kerry (Mass.), John Edwards (N.C.) and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (Mo.) are speaking at the DLC convention. All five trail Gore in hypothetical primary match ups, according to a Washington Post/Gallup poll conducted in July.
Gore was supported by 46 percent of those surveyed. Eighteen percent had "no opinion," ten-percent supported Lieberman, who was Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election and the rest of the field was in single digits.
Hillary Clinton's name was not in the poll, due perhaps to her declared status of non-candidate. But in a July poll that did include Sen. Clinton, she ranked second to Gore, with 20 percent support to his 28 percent. Lieberman and the others were in single digits, with former presidential candidate Bill Bradley at ten percent.
Looking at such polling numbers, along with other favorable factors, Godfrey Sperling, long-time columnist for the Christian Science Monitor, last month boldly predicted Hillary Clinton would change her mind about 2004.
"Bill [Clinton] told voters he would stay in his governorship for the full term - and didn't," Sperling noted. "So I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary follows a similar course."
Sperling also examined some data provided by John Zogby, one of the nation's most prominent pollsters, showing that the public's views about Hillary Clinton have softened over time. Her "strong negatives" were high during her Senate race (46 percent) but are now in the mid-30s.
Most of all, Sen. Clinton's personal ambition and tenacity will be the main ingredients in her decision to run, Sperling believes. In 1991, Sperling recounts, it was she who convinced her husband to stay in the race when he had doubts.
In any case, Sperling wrote, "she will also figure that even if she loses, she can put herself in a good position for being the nominee in 2008, when the prospect for winning may be much better."
Not so fast, says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
"She's not in the game at all in 2004 ... for either position" -- president or vice president, he insisted.
"The Clinton years are still a very clear memory for most people, and that involves a lot of controversy. But 2008, who can say what the public memory may be? The public tends to forget or ... reframe memory."
Also, said Sabato, the freshman senator will want to get further established in New York and re-make her image into that of a centrist (rather than liberal) Democrat before running for president.
By 2008, "she will probably have been re-elected in New York and she'll have four years before her next Senate election, so it will be a perfect opportunity. And if Bush is re-elected, there will be an open presidency," Sabato said. Even if she doesn't win the nomination, "but makes a credible showing, then she's the logical V.P. candidate," he added.
Sen. Clinton, meanwhile, is keeping a somewhat lower profile than other Democrats. Edwards, Lieberman, Kerry, Gephardt and Daschle have made conspicuous appearances at political events in Iowa, site of the nation's first presidential caucus and New Hampshire, scene of the first primary.
In June, for example, most of the men on that short list traveled to Des Moines to pay tribute to a local labor leader and a county activist who also served in the Clinton administration.
Kerry and Lieberman had their respective political committees donate $5,000 apiece, winning them spots as hosts of the event. Edwards' political committee reportedly donated to 20 Democratic candidates running for the Iowa House of Representatives this year.
And Gephardt gave money to the campaigns of a handful of mayoral candidates in New Hampshire last year.
Still, it's way too early to predict who will sizzle and who will fizzle in 2004, according to Sabato.
"It's just too early to say. People who think they do [know] have no real sense of history, because these things turn out strangely."
E-mail a news tip to Christine Hall.
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Lest Americans ever forget why the clintons, and all their enablers need to be hectored, hounded, and harried into silence, until "clintonese is only spoken in Hell," look here:
The Holiday *Best* of Bill Clinton & his Friends!
-Some old strange clinton "stuff"--
Liars-- and Sleaze, Incorporated... ( my files on the clintons and friends ) |
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The University of Virginia should fire Larry Sabato. Has he never heard of striking while the iron is hot?!
How many signals does this moron need to realize that the Beast will run in 2004?
Daschle, Gephardt, and Edwards are sure to fall out early. The DNC hopes Gore just goes away.
That leaves Kerry as her only obstacle for the nomination... a bigger enviro-whacko than Algore!
No SUV's, no oil drilling, no refineries and only alternative energies for this lofty patrician.
She can beat him too. No Mr. Sabato... you look but you do not see.
Translation: "So I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary lies like Bill."
PageSix.com: Page Six: HELL-CAR BURNS MODEL'S HOME
By RICHARD JOHNSON with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson
Photo by:
Dave Allocca/DMI
VERONICA Webb's eco-friendly electric car turned into a fire-spewing death machine the other night, burning down her Key West house and killing her beloved dog, Hercules.
Despite her long devotion to various green causes, the six-month pregnant supermodel says she's through with electric cars after her Chrysler Gem overloaded while charging late last Monday night, sending flames through her air conditioning system and consuming everything in its wake.
"We got the car because it was supposed to be great for the environment, but no one ever warns you how dangerous they are," Webb tells PAGE SIX's Ian Spiegelman.
Firefighters who rushed to the scene told Webb that good intentions often turn lovely homes into blazing death zones. "They said they see this kind of thing with electric cars all the time," she says. "Electric cars and golf carts are always overloading their chargers and burning up, but no one knows about it."
Among the hidden dangers, Webb says, were four hidden high-powered batteries. "There are four extra batteries that aren't shown in the [owner's manual] diagram. They need to be serviced but you can't service them if you don't even know that they're there."
Luckily, Webb was in New York shopping for baby furniture when the blaze erupted, but her new husband, Wall Streeter turned amateur archaeologist George Robb, was asleep in bed. He barely escaped with his life. "By the time the fire department showed up, they didn't even go inside to look for survivors because they assumed that anyone left inside was long dead. They said George got out with 30 seconds to spare."
Her devoted long-haired dachshund, 8-year-old Hercules, was not so lucky. "At first George called me saying Hercules had gotten out and was okay. Then he started saying he was cold. He wasn't breathing. He couldn't survive in that smoke."
Hercules, who had a cameo role in Ben Stiller's "Zoolander," might have survived if Webb's Gem had been the only electronic device that malfunctioned that night. "Our $4,000 fire alarm system never went off," she says. "All of us blindly trust our fire detectors, and I would hate to see this happen to anyone else."
Webb says that after her insurance company contacted Chrysler, the automaker set up several appointments to inspect the wreckage, but never showed up and never called to reschedule. A Chrysler spokesman did not return our calls.
Not really. It's pretty much a given that Senator Heinz will fizzle once his wife's money runs out.
Including arranging for the release of a videotape to make Al Sharpton look like a drug dealer in order to get him out of the picture?????
Kerry is an obstacle? Only if she trips over his wig. Kerry will fizzle early once his wife quits financing his run and forces him to return his cojones to her wall safe.
That was actually a pretty funny movie about the world of self-absorbed male models. Zoolander had names for his different "looks" which actually all looked the same.
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