Now It Begins

Oh, brother. There's no going back now. Two years before we inaugurate another President and each member of the National Political Media of both Left and Right will have something to get in high dudgeon or elation about. Hillary's in.

This might be exciting were it not for the fact that she is such a political lightning rod I very much doubt she could win the general election. Can anyone imagine Hillary doing any better in the South than John Kerry did? Not bloody likely. Well she has her husband you might say. But she's been trademarked as cold and calculating. Those are not personality traits that help. And then there's the gender thing. A lot of people who wouldn't vote for a woman no matter what probably aren't going to vote for a Democrat, but what about the independents?

Sarah Sands of The London Daily Mail deftly sums up the Hillary Problem:

"Finally, she is poised to stand as the person she is, rather than as who her husband is.

"She has the record, the position, the money, the support, the right hairstyle at last.

"Yet the only quality she cannot summon, however hard she works at it, is charm.

"Of course, Bill Clinton had it by the bucketful and it made (and unmade) him as President.

"Now it looks as if this lack of charm may once again thwart Hillary’s ambitions.

"For the announcement this week by her charismatic rival Democrat, Barack Obama, that he is "exploring" declaring his Presidential candidacy, with a formal announcement to follow next month, confirms Hillary Clinton’s fears that she may not win her party’s presidential ticket. "

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Granted, the GOP field right now is pretty weak in terms of electability; unless the Iraq War starts looking a lot better I don't think the gung-ho John "Send More Troops and if that Plan Fails, Send More" McCain looks all that electable either. Nor does Rudi Guliani have the street cred the win over a lot of the GOP's Christian right base on issues like abortion or Gay Rights.

The first major female candidate for the White House and the first African-American who might really have a real shot at the nomination are loaded up and ready to run, which means they will run around Iowa, New Hampshire and maybe Nevada like crazy and take potshots and play to the groupies while the rest of us worry about how the issues facing our country are being dealt with by the people we already have in higher office.

From my check of Rasmussen Reports, a fairly reliable outfit in predicting the outcome of the 2004 elections, most Democrats who have a candidate prefer either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. But about 55 percent aren't committed to either of those players. Count me in that number.

Personally I'd rather not think about it for another eight months or so. But now that the Big Lightning Rod is in there, anyone opening up a newspaper or a magazine or a news channel (especially) will be blitzkriegs with "Now that Senator Clinton is running, what does that do to the issue of (fill in the blank). Tim Russert of Meet the Press is the worst example of this, constantly trying to steer the panels on his show to an "election preview" no matter what the date or year.

Now it begins...all I can say is, given the laying waste of lives and property and civic identity that Hurricane Katrina caused, I hope the Saints win the Super Bowl. Beyond that, I don't have any favorites in any other race for the foreseeable future.