The race begins

From The Washington Post:

New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday launched a long-anticipated 2008 presidential campaign that could make her the first female president in the nation's history and the only former first lady to follow her husband in the White House.

"I'm in and I'm in to win," Clinton said on her campaign Web site early in the morning, and then spent the day at her Washington home making calls to supporters, donors and friends. Her announcement was deliberately timed to come shortly before President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday night, campaign advisers said, so she can draw a contrast with the administration's record and help focus attention on the office of the presidency.

She has name recognition going for her and will generate support form some quarters just because she is a woman. However the name recognition sword cuts both ways as there are as many people who hate the name Clinton as there are who love it and the people who would be inclined to vote for her just because she is a woman are the type who would vote Democrat anyway.

What scares me to the point of night sweats is the Republican field of challengers. The race there seems to be between McCain and Giuliani which means that come November 2008 the American public will have the choice between a liberal and a liberal for the White House and given that choice they will likely choose the liberal.

One thing definitely working against Hillary will be the innately superficial nature of the American electorate. The fact is that Hillary is starting to look her age, and maybe more. And she is shrill when she gets angry or upset and seems to have little self-control where her temper is concerned. If the people who worked with her in the White House (I'm talking about her political staff, not maids and doormen) are to be believed she spends most of her time in a rage about something (she would make a good Muslim).

All in all Hillary is an unattractive person. She is likely to learn the same lesson that Nixon did when he ran against JFK, that the people will choose the candidate that they want to look like or sleep with (depending on sex). While her looks will lock down the Janet Reno vote there aren't enough lesbians out there to elect her. Even when you add in the psychologically castrated men who fill the faculty positions on elite university campuses and the staff lounges of major newspapers and broadcast and cabel news rooms you still don't have enough to put her over the top.

But then again when left with a choice between a liberal and a liberal. . .

We Republicans have to get off our asses and find a real candidate.