Hillary is a clear favourite for 2008, with just one catch: no one likes her, says charles laurence |
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It looks more and more likely that Hillary Clinton will win the race to the White House. She's survived the first assaults of the campaign, and, because every rival from both parties has been after her and she is still ahead, she is stronger than ever.
Actual voting is way off - the presidential election is in November 2008. But candidates for both Democrats and Republicans have been jostling furiously since last year's midterm elections left Bush limping.
Hillary started off the favourite, and what is significant is that she still is. The unrivalled Clinton political machine is geared up, she has opened new leads over her Democrat rivals, and every poll has the Democrat trouncing any Republican. America is heading for its first woman president.
May 28 is the Memorial Day holiday and it is going to be a political marker. The official |
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| Every poll suggests America is heading for its first woman president |
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start of summer, it signals the first campaign break when we can expect the candidates to turn down the amplifiers and regroup.
There are also a lot of new dead to remember as Iraq remains the front-and-centre campaign issue. It is no accident that Hillary has just been to Albany, capital of New York state which she represents as senator, to accept the formal endorsement of the governor. "The first thing I will do as president," she announced, "is end this war."
There: you can't get clearer than that. After months of senatorial realpolitik, Hillary had to make a candidate's stand because her Democrat rival John Edwards, former North Carolina senator and vice-presidential candidate, had come close to harnessing the no-bull anti-war vote.
He has been calling for Americans to use Memorial Day to "raise their voices" and "reclaim patriotism". Smooth move: but Edwards has been stuck in the opinion poll teens, tarnished by the scandal of his $400 Hollywood hair cut. It was in 2004 that Republican attack-dogs cut him down as 
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