Home Sweet Home.
Hillary is the clear favorite among a certain constituency to run for President in 2008 if John Kerry loses this fall. Where is some of this strong support coming from? From the Arkansas delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the state where Hillary was once First Lady from 1978-80 and 1982-92. She was favored by 20 of the state's 47 delegates as their choice for the party's 2008 nomination, while no other candidate came close to that number, not even Vice-Presidential nominee John Edwards or fellow Arkansan Gen. Wesley Clark, who received eight and two nods, respectively. "I think it'd be time for a female, and I can't think of a better, more qualified female than Hillary," said Jimmie Lou Fisher, a former state treasurer who challenged GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2002 and lost. Meanwhile, 13 of the state's 24 female delegates want Mrs. Clinton to become the first woman ever nominated for President by a major party. Delegate Dianne Curry said she and other former Clinton Administration workers have already been discussing a potential Hillary Clinton candidacy in 2008. "Especially after she became senator, we felt she really was building the experience she would need," said Curry, who now is a state Department of Education bureaucrat. "The consensus is that she would be a great candidate and that it's an especially opportune time for a female." Speak Some Evil.
When it was reported that Hillary was left off the list of Democratic speakers for this week's DNC, many liberals called it a "total outrage" and a "snub. . . for every woman in the Democratic party and every woman in America." Her non-appearance seemed especially painful considering that her husband, who was then not nearly as well known or popular as she is now, gave the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic convention. James Carville told CNN that "every campaign does dumb things. Some campaigns every now and then do a really dumb thing...a really dumb thing. And John Kerry will get this fixed in 48 hours." Sure enough, after Democrats had vented, Kerry fixed it by asking Hillary to introduce her husband on the convention's opening night. Hill and Bill are set to appear at a long list of hot-ticket events during convention week. This includes a "lavish, 500-guest party in their honor on Sunday night," a book-signing for Bill's memoirs and Hillary's own best-seller (a recent Massachusetts book-signing drew 1,200 fans), and several other parties and fundraisers they are both expected to attend. Dropping F-Bombs.
A new book titled American Evita: Hillary Clinton's Path to Power, written by Christopher Andersen, will be coming to stores soon. The book claims that Hillary possess an "unnerving penchant for shouting Anglo-Saxonisms [obscenities] at the top of her lungs-at aides" and at Bill as well. Andersen writes that while she was First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary had a "habit of hurling objects at her husband-yellow legal pads, files, briefing books, car keys, Styrofoam coffee cups-often in the presence of the governor's aides." Andersen also details in great length Hillary's expert use of the F-word, including a 1991 episode where she berates an Arkansas trooper: "Where is the g-damn f--ing flag? I want the g-damn f--ing flag raised every f--ing morning at f--ing sunrise!" The biography also contains an on-the-record admission by former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers saying, "Anybody that stood up [to Hillary] was, you know, smashed down and belittled, very personally." Please Stop Talking.
Former President Clinton told reporters in Paris that Hillary may yet seek the presidency, even if Kerry wins this year and is re-elected in 2008. "We're going to help John Kerry. If he wins, then four years from now we'll try to help him again." And then, "Eight years from now, who knows? If she ever wants to run, I'll certainly support her. She's very good. I'm quite a good judge at political talent, and she's the ablest person I've ever known." Although he had urged his bitter half to run for the White House in fall 2003, he indicated that Hillary put an end to such talk because of her pledge to serve out her six-year term as a senator for New York. And that, he claims, was the "End of discussion."
