|
 Hillary
(& Bill) Clinton
excerpts
from the Iowa Daily Report
official draft Hillary website:
September
16-23, 2003
Hillary
keeps saying “no,” but reports continue that
she’ll become a wannabe. Some believe she’s
keeping speculation alive to bolster ’06
Senate fundraising.
Headline from
yesterday’s Newsday: “Talk of Clinton Run
Persists” Coverage by Newsday’s Anne Q,
Hoy: “New York Democratic Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton says the field of Democratic
presidential candidates is ‘beginning to break
through’ and is on track to defeat George W.
Bush next year. ‘I think we've got good
candidates,’ Clinton said in an
interview last week after calling for better
health benefits for those serving in the
National Guard and reserves. ‘They're honing
their messages. They're being very assertive.
They're beginning to break through.’ The
observation from the former first lady comes
as talk that she could enter the race
persists. For her part, Clinton repeatedly has
insisted that she intends to keep her promise
to New York voters to complete her Senate
term. Clinton has left the door
open to a presidential bid in 2008, however,
which helps drive the presidential
speculation. With many Democrats now viewing
Bush as more vulnerable over his handling of
postwar Iraq and the economy, Clinton
confronts this reality: The better the
prospects for a Democrat to defeat Bush, the
worse her chances for a presidential bid in
2008 because it would be difficult, to say the
least, to oppose a Democratic incumbent
president. Another round of conjecture
circulated after Clinton and former
President Bill Clinton recently hosted some
150 top fund-raisers at their home in
Chappaqua and Clinton reportedly
thanked them for their support ‘for my next
campaign, whatever that may be.’ Clinton
supporters insist the gathering was long
planned and meant to kick off fund-raising for
her re-election bid in 2006 when Republicans
intend to field a strong challenger. Former
New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's recent public call
for Clinton to jump into the race did
little to dampen the rumors, despite Cuomo
having appealed in August to former Vice
President Al Gore to do the same thing. One
key Democrat disputes the notion that the talk
reflects a weak slate of candidates. ‘The
reality is most of the activists recognize
that she is not getting into the race and the
contributor base recognizes that she is not
getting into the race,’ said a top Democrat,
who asked not to be named. ‘It doesn't really
matter.’ Some suggest Republicans are
keeping the rumors alive to help them raise
money for Bush. Certainly, the talk also helps
Clinton rake in donations for her own
re-election in 2006.” (9/16/2003)
… “Gen. Is Hill’s Ace in Fox Hole” –
headline from today’s commentary by Deborah Orin in
today’s New York Post. Column excerpt: “Bill
Clinton’s effusive praise for new Democratic
presidential candidate Wesley Clark is sparking
chatter that he sees the good general as a
place-holder for wife Hillary, safeguarding her
option to make a late entry into the race. So
there was Bill Clinton talking up Clark to
his wife's donors and then, out in California,
saying he's brilliant and ‘he's got a sack full of
guts.’ Bizarrely high praise considering that
Clinton, as president, let his secretary of defense,
William Cohen, abruptly dump Clark ahead of
schedule as NATO supreme commander, a move that
could hardly be seen as a vote of confidence. The
theory on how Clark helps Sen. Hillary: With the
media cheering him on, Clark slows front-runner
Howard Dean and muddles the race, making it easier
for her to jump in just before the Nov. 21 filing
deadline for New Hampshire - or even later. Then
Clark, whose staff is conveniently crammed with
Clinton-Gore types, can step out of the way later
this fall, endorse Clinton and become her perfect
vice-presidential running mate, shoring up her
national-security credentials. Or maybe Clark,
as the 10th candidate, keeps Dems fractured so
there's no clear nominee. That leads to a
brokered convention next July that turns to
…Hillary, of course. Or alternatively, Dean
still gets nominated but Clark weakens him, all but
guaranteeing that Dean loses big time to President
Bush - neatly clearing both Dean and Clark out of
the way for Hillary's 2008 presidential bid.
‘The more muddled they can keep the field, the
better it is for the Clintons. They want the
Democratic race to go on as long as possible because
they don't want anyone but her to be able to beat
George Bush,’ said GOP pollster Jim McLaughlin,
expressing a view shared by a lot of Dems who don't
want to be quoted by name. Hence, the endless
Hillary Tease -- an official Web site that her staff
lards with ‘Run, Hillary, run’ messages. She could
shut that down in an instant, but won't - because it
helps her rake in big bucks and keeps her options
open. The logic here is that Sen. Hillary
can't afford to have another Democrat win in 2004
because then she'd have to wait to run until 2012,
when she'll be 65. And no one thinks a senior
citizen can be the first female president.”
(9/18/2003)
… “The Clinton’s Candidate…Bill and
Hillary line up behind Wesley Clark”
Excerpt from “John Fund’s Political Diary” on
OpinionJournal.com (Wall Street Journal): “The
Democratic presidential campaign has been a bust so
far. After nearly a year of campaigning, the only
one of the nine announced candidates to catch fire
has been Howard Dean, whom party leaders deride as
too liberal and too error-prone to beat President
Bush. That explains the extraordinary welcome
that many Democrats yesterday gave Wesley Clark's
announcement that he was joining the presidential
race. The chief boosters of Mr. Clark's
candidacy are none other than Bill and Hillary
Clinton. Mr. Clark hails from Little
Rock, Ark., knew President Clinton when he was still
a governor, and had an extraordinary degree of
contact with him when he served as NATO commander
during the Kosovo bombing campaign of 1999. Mr.
Clinton has nothing but praise for him: ‘He is
brilliant, he is brave, and he is good.’ As for New
York's junior senator, she distanced herself
yesterday from reports that she had already agreed
to serve as co-chairman of the Clark campaign.
But Fox News reports that her office doesn't deny
that such a role ‘is in the works and might happen
soon.’ If that happens, Mrs. Clinton could walk
into the Clark campaign headquarters and feel as if
she had stepped back in time to her husband's White
House circa 1996. Clinton commerce secretary
Mickey Kantor will be a senior Clark adviser.
Bruce Lindsey, the White House counsel for President
Clinton, will be providing advice. So too will Eli
Segal, Mr. Clinton's 1992 campaign chairman. Mr.
Clark's spokesman is none other than Mark
Fabiani, who handled damage control on scandals for
President Clinton. No one would be surprised if
Chris Lehane, Mr. Fabiani's business partner and Al
Gore's former press secretary, also joined
the campaign. Mr. Lehane resigned from Sen. John
Kerry's presidential campaign just last week…One
of the challenges Mr. Clark will face will be his
closeness to the Clintons. It is no secret that they
are suspicious of Dr. Dean, the current
front-runner, whom they fear would be trounced so
badly against President Bush that he could hurt
Hillary's prospects in 2008. Should Mr. Clark
be elected president, the Clintons would have a
strong ally in the Oval Office. If he does well but
doesn't get the nomination, he may be viewed as a
suitable running mate for Mrs. Clinton or some other
Democratic nominee in the future. Mr. Clark
is no doubt running for president for many reasons.
But an important, unacknowledged one is that he is
the favorite candidate of the Democratic Party's two
best-known figures. To the extent that he
succeeds, the Clintons will see their already
substantial influence in the Democratic Party grow.
Mr. Clark no doubt is his own man, but with so many
old Clinton hands surrounding him, don't be
surprised if Mr. Clinton is occasionally tempted to
act as if he were still Mr. Clark's
commander-in-chief.” (9/18/2003)
… “Clark-Hillary 2004?…A winning
ticket” – headline from nationalreview.com. In a
guest commentary, Peter Augustine Lawler – a Berry
College government prof – makes a case for a
Clark-Clinton team. Excerpt: “The
serial-primary method used by our parties to pick
presidential nominees is chaotic and unpredictable.
Everyone knows that party elites have no real power
any more, and nobody really knows how our
involvement in Iraq and the stock market will look
next year. Candidates also sometimes self-destruct
because of personal foibles that would not be clear
this early in the campaign. Nonetheless, predictions
must be made. Some facts that are probably
facts: All the Democratic candidates except Dean and
Clark are stillborn. They will be wiped off the map
by crushing defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Dean is the candidate of the most-articulate
faction in the party -- the upper middle-class,
bourgeois-bohemian (bobo) crowd. He appeals to
West Wing fantasies and Vietnam antiwar
nostalgia, and especially to those on the Left who
believe that Clinton demoralized the real (as
opposed to the new) Democratic party. He presents
himself effectively as an ‘outsider’; he has the
image that perennially suckers primary voters.
And he really is an outsider; he would radically
reform the Clinton-dominated party establishment.
It's hard to see how he wouldn't do very well among
the disproportionally bobo (and very white) primary
electorates of Iowa and New Hampshire. That
doesn't mean that Dean can get nominated,
much less elected. Bobo candidates (such as McGovern
or even Dukakis) don't fare well in general
elections. They exaggerate the nation's cultural
divisions, and so they rally regular guys with no
strong partisan affiliations to the Republicans.
George W. Bush, one of the most-regular
(including religious) guys ever to the president,
would have a strong personal advantage over the smug
and snotty Dean. More than that,
African-American voters don't like bobos; Clinton --
who speaks with the cadence of a populist black
preacher -- won because he understood that so well.
Ethnic Catholic northern, and white Protestant
southern voters -- still a large part of the party's
electorate -- also are repulsed by the intellectual
elitism -- including the lack of patriotism -- of
what was until recently called ‘yuppie scum.’
So it seems to me that all Clark needs to do to
prevail after the first couple of primaries is to be
the viable alternative to Dean and be
enthusiastically endorsed by both Clintons.
And Bill and Hillary are clearly raising
their visibility with that job in mind. They are the
Democratic establishment, and they can't risk having
a nominee they can't control. On Bill's word,
African-American voters will flock to Clark as
the alternative to the bobo, and the pro-choice
Catholics (Democratic Catholics) will have found one
of their own. Clark will remind many gullible
Democrats of the pseudo-integrity of West Wing's
Catholic — President Bartlet, and a new fantasy will
develop. (Clark, like Bartlet, was also a
professor economics for a while!) Clark is also
more of an outsider than Dean; he has no political
experience at all! And all astute Democrats will
choose him over Dean as the man who could
really beat Bush, as more a Clinton than a McGovern.
Clark is actually Clinton with some Eisenhower
added; it's hard to accuse a general of lacking
personal courage or ignoring issues of natural
security. Lieberman, the national-security candidate
at this point, will endorse Clark when he drops out
fairly early in the primary season. Clark,
more than Clinton, will be a formidable candidate in
the south. Clark has to be regarded as the
favorite for the nomination, and it would be a
mistake at this point to regard him as an underdog
in the general election. The main stumbling
block to his success would be Hillary
entering the race. As far as I can tell, her
judgment is that the risk for her at this point is
too high. She surely secretly hopes for a narrow
Democratic defeat next year to clear the way for her
in 2008. But political results can't be
engineered that precisely, and don't be surprised if
she doesn't adopt the amazingly low-risk strategy of
making herself available as Clark's running
mate. That would make her the presumptive nominee
in either 2008 or 2012, depending on the general's
skill and fortune. Why would the senator give up
her all the influence that comes from having a safe
seat from one of our largest states? The former
First Lady could hardly be fulfilled as a mere
senator; her real ambition is to be president. And
whomever Clark picks as his vice-presidential
candidate -- if the ticket is elected -- would have
immediate advantages in the struggle to succeed him.
Hillary can't count on that person not
catching on. And no insider Democratic senator has
won the party's presidential nomination under the
present primary-nomination system. If Mrs.
Clinton wants to be president, she'll want to be on
the Clark ticket.” (9/19/2003)
…She keeps saying no, but the Hillary faithful
keep up efforts to recruit supporters for 2004 prez
bid. Under the subhead “Beating the
Recruitment Drums,” Dana Milbank reported in
yesterday’s Washington Post: “The Democratic
field's getting more crowded by the day, but a
Virginia college student is pushing for yet one more
entry: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Adam Parkhomenko has started VoteHillary.org, a Web
site that's aimed at recruiting the former first
lady to run for president in 2004. He said he has
enlisted between 5,000 and 6,000 volunteers and they
have just registered with the Federal Election
Commission so they can collect pledges online.
They're also holding a rally across from the
Senate on Nov. 1. Although Clinton has said she
has no intention of seeking the presidency next
year, she has not convinced Parkhomenko. ‘We
don't think she has fully made up her mind,’ he
said. ‘We haven't heard the last from her yet.’ But
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said, in fact,
they have, and that Parkhomenko would be lobbying in
vain. ‘Senator Clinton has repeatedly said that
she will serve out her full six-year term,’
Reines said. ‘She loves her job, and is working on
being the best senator she can be for the people of
New York.’” (9/21/2003)
… Team Hillary – in an apparent effort to curtail
speculation about a presidential bid – pulls
run-for-president e-mails from website. Coverage
in yesterday’s New York Post by Deborah Orin: “Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday abruptly yanked all
the run-for-president e-mails off her official Web
site in a bid to stop speculation that she's leaving
the door open to a 2004 White House bid. The
move came the day after The Post reported a fresh
wave of the e-mails had been posted on the Web site
and Clinton defended them as ‘freedom of
speech’ even while saying she wouldn't run. But
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said
yesterday: ‘We don't want anyone to be confused’
about her plans. Asked what happened to the First
Amendment and ‘freedom of speech,’ Reines said he
would plead the Fifth Amendment. But overnight,
Clinton's Web site, friendsofhillary.com, was
purged of a slew of messages like this one, signed
Kim C: ‘I would love nothing more than to see you
in the White House - the sooner the better.’ The
e-mails had all been selected for posting by her
staff and their removal was approved by the former
first lady. Clinton has repeatedly insisted she
won't run in 2004, but has left the door open to a
presidential bid in 2008. Her husband, former
President Bill Clinton, fanned the speculation this
week when he said she was getting pressed by New
Yorkers to go for the White House even though she'd
pledged to serve out her full term, which ends in
2006. Bill Clinton talked up his wife and Gen.
Wesley Clark, the latest Democratic 2004
entry, as the two stars of their party, sparking
speculation that Clark might be a stalking
horse for a late Hillary entry. But
skeptics questioned whether removing the e-mails
really changed the situation.” (9/21/2003)
… “Clinton on a Visit to Kosovo, Warns Against
Getting Even” – headline from yesterday’s New
York Times. Excerpt from report – dateline: Pristina,
Kosovo – by Nicholas Wood: “Former President
Bill Clinton was welcomed with acclaim here today,
more than four years after NATO troops first entered
this province, effectively ending two years of
conflict and placing it under a United Nations
mandate. The visit was arranged so Mr. Clinton
could receive an honorary degree and visit American
soldiers serving with the United Nations
peace-keeping force. Hundreds of people lined the
roadside and waved flags in greeting the former
president on the four-and-a-half-mile journey from
the airport to the center of the city. Few other
politicians could expect the same reception. Mr.
Clinton, who last visited in 1999, is seen by the
province's ethnic Albanian majority as being
responsible for ending Yugoslav rule in the
province, and taking it effectively a step closer to
independence. The city's largest boulevard is named
in his honor. While four years of United Nations
rule have brought comparative peace to the region,
ethnic violence remains a problem. Attacks on the
Serbian minority have increased in the last three
months. Mr. Clinton used his visit to warn
Albanians that those seeking revenge for atrocities
committed by Serbian and Yugoslav forces during the
late 1990's could hinder the prospects for
independence. ‘Do you want to get even?’ he asked an
invited audience at Pristina University, ‘I hope
not. My Bible says that vengeance belongs to
God.’ He added that reconciliation was ‘the only way
you can achieve a secure, stable and prosperous
Kosovo.’” (9/21/2003)
… Another factor for Hillary – and Bill – to
consider in weighing ’04 presidential run: Marist
College poll shows Giuliani clobbering Hillary
57%-40% in ’06 Senate race. From latimes.com
(Los Angeles Times) this morning – a report by AP’s
Michael Gormley in Albany: “Nearly two-thirds of
New Yorkers want former New York City Mayor Rudy
Giuliani back in public office, according to a
statewide poll released Monday. Hypothetical
matchups found the Republican beating both of the
state's Democratic senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Charles Schumer, if the elections were held
today. The Marist College Institute for Public
Opinion found 62 percent of registered voters want
Giuliani to return to public office, while 32
percent felt Giuliani should stay in private
business. Giuliani, who was forced to leave the
mayor's office because of term limits after
shepherding the city through the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, is still boosted by the statesman
image he burnished that year, said Lee Miringoff of
the Marist institute…Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny
Mindel hadn't yet seen the poll and had no immediate
comment Monday. Thirty-one percent of voters
surveyed said they thought Giuliani should run for
governor. Others said they thought he should run for
the U.S. Senate, return as mayor of New York City or
be appointed to a national security position. Those
three options were each favored by about 15 percent
of voters questioned. In a hypothetical
matchup for the U.S. Senate against Clinton in 2006,
the poll found 57 percent favoring Giuliani over 40
percent for the incumbent Democrat. Giuliani
would beat Schumer 51 percent to 45 percent if the
2004 election were held today, according to the
poll. Eight percent thought Giuliani should run
for president after President Bush leaves office.
Those three areas were each favored by about 15
percent of voters questioned. The telephone poll
questioned 912 registered voters Sept. 15-18. The
margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5
percentage points.” (9/22/2003)
“Run, Hill, Run, says Bubba” – headline from
this morning’s New York Post. Report by the Post’s
Brian Blumquist: “Bill Clinton has been urging
his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to break her
promise to serve her full, six-year Senate term so
that she can run for president next year, it was
reported yesterday. Citing two sources close to
the Clintons, Time reports that the former
president has been urging his wife privately to
reconsider her pledge not to run for president in
2004. The report said
Bill also is pondering the most feasible way for her
to back out of her pledge to serve her full Senate
term for New York.
Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) has repeatedly said
she's not running for president in 2004 because she
promised New Yorkers she'd serve her full term,
which ends in 2006. Asked yesterday if the former
president has, indeed, encouraged his wife to run
for the White House, Jim Kennedy, Bill's
spokesman, replied, ‘He said it is her decision, and
she has decided.’” (9/22/2003)
… Although Clark’s in the race, Hillarymania
continues in New Hampshire. Headline from this
morning’s Boston Herald: “Wanted by Dems: Star”
Excerpt from coverage by the Herald’s David R.
Guarino, reporting from Londonderry, NH: “Democrats
begging for star power to take on President Bush are
ready to embrace late entrants, from unknown Wesley
Clark to vilified Hillary Clinton, worried the
current pack can't win. Just four months from
key first tests in New Hampshire and Iowa,
activists, even those now committed to candidates
this week showed a wandering eye as fresh Clinton
rumors swirled and Clark joined the fray. ‘The
most important thing, more than anything else, is
finding someone who can beat Bush,’ said Fran
Gehling, a 56-year-old unemployed New Hampshire
teacher. Though wearing a Dean sticker, Gehling
joined others who said their votes are up for grabs.
That's just the kind of talk that could drag the
former first lady into the race, analysts and
Hillary backers said. ‘I don't think (the current
lineup of Democrats) have a chance. Not even the
slightest. Not a single chance,'’ said Esme
Taylor, organizer of a Sausalito, Calif.-based
Draft Hillary movement on the Internet.
Clark, a retired four-star Army general from
Arkansas, seized the campaign buzz from front-runner
Howard Dean midweek by becoming the 10th Democrat
running for the party's nomination. Dean,
the man most threatened by Clark's entrance
since both rallied support based on opposition to
the Iraqi war, immediately began drawing out
differences between the two on experience. ‘I've
actually run a government for 12 years, I know how
to balance budgets, I've delivered health
insurance,’ Dean told reporters. ‘It's tough
stuff but I know how to do it.’ While Clark's
arrival was long expected, few campaigns know what
to think of a possible Clinton campaign. When former
President Clinton hinted his wife might rethink past
opposition to running this week, the field
shuddered. ‘The Democrats all have respectable
numbers without her but, if she gets in, she clears
the field -- absolutely wipes it out,’ said Maurice
Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University
Polling Institute in Connecticut. Hillary
Clinton aides insisted again last week she would not
run, and removed e-mails suggesting she join the
fray from a campaign Web site. Conventional wisdom
had Clinton waiting until 2008, when Bush
will definitely be gone and, if finishing a second
term, Vice President Dick Cheney has vowed not to
run. But analysts said Clinton could be eyeing
2008 a bit more warily with Bush's popularity fading
-- terrified a Democrat could win in 2004, making a
2008 campaign impossible. Democrats said the
wandering romance will continue until a solid
candidate emerges. ‘As they say, Democrats fall
in love, Republicans fall in line,’ said Pat Webb,
host of a Dean yard party in Londonderry this
week. ‘But I, like a lot of people, hate George Bush
so much, I know we just have to have the right
person to beat him.’” (9/22/2003)
… Headline posted on the DRUDGE REPORT this
morning -- “CRAWFORD: Could Clark Be a Stalking
Horse for Hillary Clinton?” Excerpt from column
by CQ’s (Congressional Quarterly) Craig Crawford: “Clinton-Clark.
Don't laugh. I'm serious. That ticket is the
only way I can make sense of Gen. Wesley Clark's
sudden adventure into presidential politics.
Clark must be a stalking horse for Hillary Rodham
Clinton. And not for her to be his
running mate, as some suggest — but the other way
around. Sure, believing that the junior senator
from New York will run for the 2004 Democratic
presidential nomination might be the political
equivalent of believing in Unidentified Flying
Objects. But on Wednesday, I am sure I saw a UFO
flying over the head of Clark as he announced his
quest for the presidency from Little Rock, Ark.
Piloted by the Clinton pals now managing Clark's
every movement, this flying saucer could soon land
and reveal its true cargo: Hillary. The
publicly-known list of Clintonites on Clark's
team encourages speculation that the 42nd president
and New York's senator are somewhere in the mix. It
includes former presidential spokesman Mark Fabiani;
fundraiser Skip Rutherford; confidant Bruce Lindsey;
and 1992 campaign bosses Eli Segal and Mickey Kantor.
Others, including former aides to Vice President
Al Gore, are in the wings. Suspend disbelief for
a moment and consider the scenario. For Clinton
to run, she needs more time to shake her pledge to
New York voters that she would not seek the
presidency this soon. The massive media buzz
surrounding Clark's nascent campaign buys her
time by diverting attention from the only threat to
a Clinton bid -- former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean's dazzling rise in the nomination race.
Husband Bill publicly launched the pledge-dodge
maneuver for his wife just as Clinton loyalists
working for Clark leaked word to the media that the
general would definitely run. How convenient
that Bill Clinton's own former chief of staff Leon
E. Panetta asked the set-up question at a forum on
Sept. 16 in Monterey, Calif. Panetta asked if there
was ‘a chance’ Hillary Clinton would run in
the current campaign. ‘That's really a decision for
her to make,’ Bill Clinton said. But didn't Sen.
Clinton already say she had made her decision,
repeatedly vowing not to run? Why did he not repeat
her official stand? Having cracked the door open
much further than his wife ever has, Bill then oddly
ruminated about the vagaries of her pledge to New
York voters. ‘I was impressed at the state fair in
New York, which is in Republican country in upstate
New York, at how many New Yorkers came up and said
they would release her from her commitment if she
wanted to do it,’ Clinton said. ‘But she said ...
she just doesn't understand how to walk away from
that. So I just have to take her for where she is
right now.’ He knows plenty about such things. To
run for president in 1992, Clinton had to conduct a
series of town hall meetings with Arkansas voters
asking to be released from a similar pledge he made
in his 1990 campaign for reelection as governor. He
had no trouble putting it behind him. Clark's
bid hurts more people than Dean, the media-anointed
front-runner who has so far faced no serious threat
from the existing field. The other major candidates
are harmed in various ways, making it all the more
likely that the race could be unsettled by the time
Clinton would jump in. Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts can no longer claim to be the only
combat veteran running, a central rationale of his
campaign. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri now faces
another high-profile foe who opposed the Iraq War
that the former House minority leader so strenuously
supported a year ago when it seemed like the thing
to do. With so many former aides to Clinton and Al
Gore on Clark's team, Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut no longer seems to be the heir apparent,
a status conferred by his stint as Gore's 2000
running mate. Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina
and Bob Graham of Florida now must contend with a
rival whose Southern roots threaten their
already-floundering bids to be Dixie's favorite son.
Clark's first campaign swing took him to
Graham's home state and Edward's native
state, South Carolina. Now comes the hard part for
the Clinton-Clark ticket. How does a
candidate who is running drop out, endorse someone
who is not running -- and then become her running
mate? Such drama is not beyond Clinton's reach.
She is, after all, the first First Lady with the
audacity and skill to win elected office of any
kind, let alone a Senate seat. My best shot at
imagining this scenario begins with Clark building
the foundations of a national campaign by running a
credible two-month effort, raising a respectable
amount of cash and deploying former Clinton-Gore
staffers around the country. In the meantime, the
Clintons continue their tease. She keeps saying
‘no’ while everyone around her, including her
husband, says ‘maybe.’ They closely watch President
Bush's polling strength. If his slide continues,
they pull the trigger in late November. Clark
and Clinton stage a summit and in a sudden
burst of activity, the deal is done and she takes
over his campaign organization just in time for the
Nov. 21 filing deadline for the New Hampshire
primary. You may now resume disbelief. Unless
you've seen a UFO lately.” (9/22/2003)
… For former wannabe prospect Biden the
choices appear to be Clark or Kerry, but Hillary
gets solid mention too. From AP’s roundup of the
weekend Sunday morning shows: “Sen. Joseph
Biden, a former Democratic presidential candidate,
says he's leaning this year toward supporting his
Senate colleague John Kerry or the newcomer, retired
Gen. Wesley Clark. He reserved most of his praise,
however, for a candidate who's not running: Hillary
Clinton. ‘One of the smartest people I know’ was
Biden's reaction when the New York senator's name
came up on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘She's a very
powerful figure in our party. She's very well-liked,
and she's very, very smart.’ But she and those
around her insist she does not plan to run, and she
has pledged to serve in the Senate at least until
her term expires in 2006. So, Biden said, ‘The
two people I'm most inclined to support are Kerry or
Clark.’ Kerry, from Massachusetts, was an
early entrant in the campaign. Clark, from
Arkansas, former supreme commander of NATO and a
friend of former President Clinton and his wife, the
senator, announced his candidacy only last week.
But, Biden was asked, what if Mrs. Clinton should
decide after all to run in 2004? ‘Look, this is one
of the few people in all of America who's known by
every single American,’ Biden said. ‘The good news
is the bad news: Everybody has an opinion.’
Biden, D-Del., ran for president in 1987 but ended
his campaign before the primary season began because
of allegations that some information in his
biography and resume were plagiarized. The eventual
nominee, Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, lost
badly to the first President Bush.” (9/22/2003)
… “The
General and the Lady” – headline on Howard Kurtz
column on washingtonpost.com this morning. Excerpt:
“I can't stop thinking about how Wesley Clark
rocketed to the top of the Democratic field
-- or about the media conspiracy types who see it
all as a Hillary plot…Clark, of course,
isn't really leading the Dems' 2004 field, despite a
Newsweek poll showing his cruise missile of a
campaign at 14 percent, compared to 12 percent for
Dean and Lieberman. National polls are
meaningless in this contest; it's all about Iowa and
New Hampshire and South Carolina and the other early
states. My guess is that Clark scored well
because he's a blank slate -- most people know only
that he's an ex-general who could give Bush a hard
time -- upon which frustrated voters can project
their hopes. But it's also a commentary on the lack
of enthusiasm for the rest of the field, except for
Dean. Most reporters, in fact, think they'll be
gone in a flash, leaving Dean and an anti-Dean
candidate, who might possibly be Four-Star Wes.
Clark has impressive drive and intelligence, but
also a fair degree of self-absorption. When I met
him a few months back in a green room, within three
minutes he was passionately describing how he was
unfairly cashiered by the Clinton administration
despite his hard-fought victory in Kosovo. When
I returned awhile later, he was recommending books
for my wife to read. Newsweek's Evan Thomas captures
that after a two-hour interview: ‘Clark did not want
to let go until he was sure the reporter understood
him -- not just understood him, but respected him,
believed him, appreciated him, liked him.’
Clark's Clintonite spinners, interestingly enough,
blame last week's Iraq flip-flops with reporters on
‘Clark's own naiveté about the brutish
simple-mindedness of the campaign press corps,’
writes Howard Fineman. Ouch. Now for the
Hillary part. I thought I understood why so many
cable shows were pushing the HRC-in-'04 question
last week: why let the facts get in the way of a
good story? Why be deterred by the former first
lady's repeated insistence that she's not running
this time around? Why give up the golden goose of
the Clintons soap opera, which made the '90s so much
fun? And, for conservatives, why deprive
themselves of the fun of continuing to kick around
one of the Clintons? But when I read William
Safire's latest column, I realized it was something
deeper than that. A chunk of the world still sees
the Clintons as power-hungry manipulators whose
thirst was not quenched by Bill's two terms and a
Senate seat for the missus. In that light, almost
everything can be construed as a plot to return them
to 1600 Pennsylvania, where this time she would get
the big office. Safire's thesis is that Dean
would dump the Clintons's pal Terry McAuliffe as
party chief if the outsider wins the nomination.
‘What if, as Christmas nears, the economy should
tank and President Bush becomes far more vulnerable?
Hillary would have to announce willingness to
accept a draft. Otherwise, should the maverick
Dean take the nomination and win, Clinton dreams
of a Restoration die.’ Clark, under this
scenario, helps deflate Dean, then steps aside for
Hillary and is rewarded with the VP spot. Great
reading -- even if the junior senator from New York
has no intention of subjecting herself to the wrath
of the vast right-wing conspiracy any time soon.
Now here's Dick Morris on Fox, saying that
Hillary got Carol Moseley Braun into the
race as a way of stopping Sharpton. Man, that
woman is powerful.” (9/23/2003)
… “The
Clinton candidate”
– subhead on Greg Pierce’s “Inside Politics” column
in today’s Washington Times. The report: “’The
Clintons decided that the Democratic primary
campaign was getting out of hand,’ New York
Times columnist William Safire writes. ‘Howard Dean
was getting all the buzz and too much of the
passionate left's money. Word was out that Dean
as nominee, owing Clintonites nothing, would quickly
dump Terry McAuliffe, through whom Bill and Hillary
maintain control of the Democratic National
Committee,’ Mr. Safire said. ‘That's when word
was leaked of the former president's observation at
an intimate dinner party at the Clinton Chappaqua,
N.Y., estate that 'there are two stars in the
Democratic Party -- Hillary and Wes Clark.'…In
the meantime, the four-star general that Clinton
fired for being a publicity hog during the Kosovo
liberation has now been surrounded by the
Clinton-Gore mafia. Lead agent is Mark Fabiani,
the impeachment spinmeister; he brought in the rest
of the restoration coterie. When reporters start
poking into any defense contracts Clark
arranged for clients after his retirement, he will
have the lip-zipping services of the Clinton
confidant Bruce Lindsey.’” (9/23/2003)
…
Hillary-will-run stories continue to persist.
“Dick
Morris: Hillary Discourages Donors to Other Dems”
– headline on NewsMax.com. The report: “U.S.
Sen. Hillary Clinton is actively discouraging
potential donors from contributing to any of the
announced Democrat presidential candidates, so
they'll have political cash on hand if she decides
to run next year.
So says Dick Morris, who pointed to a meeting two
weeks ago between Bill and Hillary Clinton
and 150 party fat cats held at the former first
couple's mansion in Chappaqua, N.Y. ‘When she had
that meeting with her money people up in
Westchester, one of the functions was to tell
everybody to stay out of the race – not to give
money to anybody else,’ Morris told WABC Radio's
Monica Crowley on Saturday. In fact, one former
mega-donor to Bill Clinton's past presidential
campaigns came to the Chappaqua soiree convinced
Hillary wasn't running, but left believing she could
change her mind. ‘Some people might have been
left with the impression that there's always a
possibility [that Hillary might run],’ said
John Catsimatidis, founder of the Gristedes
supermarket chain. ‘I was.’ Aside from any private
utterances, Catsimatidis and the rest of the guests
were treated to Sen. Clinton's announcement
that she'd like all present to stay on board ‘for my
next campaign, whatever that might be.’ Morris
predicted that the former first couple would ‘float
the rumor of her candidacy at various points to slow
down the momentum of other candidates’ -- and
thereby keep the party open to a Hillary Clinton
candidacy. ‘If she feels Bush is going to lose,
then she has to get into this race,’ he told
Crowley. ‘She has to be there as the viable
alternative if Bush is going to be defeated.’”
(9/23/2003)
… “Sen. Clinton Bashes Bush Administration” –
headline from FOXNews.com. Excerpt from AP report: “New
York Sen. Hillary Clinton said the Bush
administration is trying to impose a ‘radical
right-wing agenda’ on the United States and is
attempting to dismantle social programs such as
Medicare and Social Security. Clinton
made the comments at a fund-raiser for Providence
(R. I.) Mayor David Cicilline. Clinton
targeted the president's handling of the economy,
and said the Bush administration was out to
extinguish the legacy of her husband, Bill
Clinton, who was in the White House from 1993 to
2001, and other Democratic presidents. ‘I've got
to realize it's nothing personal,’ Clinton said.
‘They want to undo Johnson, Truman, Franklin
Roosevelt. They want to undo the New
Deal...It boggles the mind.’ Clinton, who has
said she won't enter the 2004 presidential race,
criticized the White House for not understanding
local issues that affect working class Americans
‘There are a lot of big challenges in the world
right now, things that are really quite difficult to
deal with, whether we talk about Iraq or the Middle
East or North Korea. And yet in the face of all
those challenges this administration has the time to
figure out how to take overtime away from millions
of hardworking Americans.’ Clinton's remarks
were made at a Cicilline fund-raiser.”
(9/23/2003)
 September
1-15, 2003
September
16-23, 2003
September
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