Posted on 01/03/2003 8:21:07 AM PST by arj
While public polls show New York Senator Hillary Clinton the current front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, the former First Lady is telling friends and advisors that her biggest obstacle to going back to the White House is not George W. Bush but her womanizing husband.
So concerned are Mrs. Clinton’s campaign strategists, they have conducted a number of polls and focus groups to test public reaction to a divorce.
Early indications are the freshman New York Senator would run stronger without her husband’s baggage.
“The bottom line is that she’s popular. He’s not,” says Democratic strategist Holly Clarkson. “She has more appeal to the voters and she doesn’t need him to win an election.”
Clearly, divorce is one of the decisions Clinton must make if she decides to run for President in 2004. Her husband’s womanizing continues and tabloids have linked him to a long string of new lovers, including actress Demi Moore.
“Clinton is more of a whorehound now than when he was in the Oval Office,” says a New York City police officer who has worked guard detail on the former President. “The guy must be taking Viagra with all the tail he’s getting.”
Even some of the city’s high-priced call girls have told New York vice cops they have been servicing the former President.
“Some of them are just bragging and blowing smoke,” one vice officer told Capitol Hill Blue, “but I’ve known some of these girls a long time and I believe one or two of them. From all the stories I’ve been hearing, it’s possible.”
Capitol Hill Blue has also learned that Clinton’s Secret Service team has a higher-than-normal turnover rate as agents asked to be transferred away from the former President, even if the transfer means a lower-profile post.
“The agents don’t respect him,” says one retired Secret Service agent. “Can you blame them?”
Sources within the Democratic Party say Clinton’s ever-increasing philandering is worrying top party brass who now view the ex-President as a liability for fundraising and other uses.
“It’s difficult to arrange to have the former President appear at a high-dollar event and then find out he hit on the wife of the event organizer,” says one DNC staffer. “He is out of control.”
The former President’s very public love life is not the only affairs of the heart that concern Democratic strategists who are planning Hillary’s 2004 run for the Presidency. The worry about continued rumors on the Senator’s after hours activities.
“Don’t think that Hillary is sitting around waiting for Bill to come home and change shirts,” admits one Democratic consultant. “She’s done her share of bed-hopping. She just knows how to be discreet.”
After presidential aide Vince Foster’s mysterious death in 1993, rumors swirled around Washington about an affair between Hillary and the longtime Clinton confidant. Others suggested the First Lady preferred female companionship.
“She never talks about her private life,” says one former Clinton White House staffer. “She has one but it is exactly that – private.”
But campaign consultants worry that Hillary’s private life or sexual preferences will have a hard time staying private under the intense glare of a political campaign.
Political scientist George Harleigh, who has watched the Clintons since their days in Arkansas, say Bill and Hillary have “one of the most complex and confusing relationships that we’ve ever seen in political circles.”
“The general impression has always been that their marriage is one of convenience,” Harleigh says. “I think it goes deeper in that. They seem to feed off each other, in both good times and bad. The question that will have to be answered if Hillary runs for President will be ‘is the feeding frenzy over?’”
Spokesmen for both the Senator and the former President did not return phone calls seeking comment on this report.
Hillary!™ has promised not to run for president in 2004, she keeps this promise by running as VP.
The president dies in office after two years and one day.
Hillary!™ becomes president, and under the 22nd Amendment, is still eligble to run for office in 2008 and 2012, giving us the Hillary!™ decade.
Of course in 2016, the will be a major crisis requiring the "temporary" suspension of that year's elections...
He who votes doesn't count; he who counts the votes, counts - Joesph Stalin
And they just noticed this recently?
. . . LOL with a sad sigh for the folly of partisan Democrats . . . this priapic caricature has cost the Dems their souls, and now we have to deal with his "alleged" wife. Thanx fer nothin'!
Two points; One Hillary is not popular and two, Democratic strategist is an oxymoron, the Dems have no strategy.
No details, please.
ducking...
It was widely known that Clinton was screwing around while he was Att. General in Ark. Before he was Govenor of Arkansas. What do you call a woman who sleeps with a man purely for financial/personal gain? The only reason she has stayed around, is because Bill was going places. She stuck around Bill, so she could be first lady, then used his reputation/benefits to run for Senate. They deserve each other.
The part I find offensive about Hillary, is given the 3,000 memorial services following 9-11; Hillary was unable to attend a single one. Absolutely too busy to attend a single memorial service. But, when celebrities state a televised fund-raiser; she suddenly has time to show up. I was so proud of the firemen for recognizing her for what she is; and boo'ing her off the stage.
Agreed. Its just a typical "marketing" tactic where you tell people something over and over again, and they start to believe it. Another typical one from the past year are headlines like "The call for reparations gains strength". The ignorant, who can form no opinion of their own, hear this crap and start to think, "Well, I guess Hillary is popular" or "Huh, I guess reparations are popular" when such things couldn't be further from the truth.
Call me naive, but I believe this tactic isnt working anymore either. The November Midterms should have told the left to sit down and shut up, observe real Leadership and take notes. Next the left needs to purge its ranks of the Pelosis, Murrays, Clintons, etc and adopt a far more center stance. (I refuse to use the term "centrist" because that what the defeated dems are calling themselves now).
You are correct, this is an age old ploy that, while it has worked in the past, works no longer. Why arent the dems listening to the more Center members? Ive wondered why people even think Hillary is Presidential material, she is not. Of course, Im enjoying the implosion :)
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