Mound City

Clinton is Early Favorite in 2008
This is such a bad idea. It has been widely expected that Clinton would run in 2008, but it's terrible news for those who are trying to rebuild the Democratic Party.

It's not that Clinton has bad ideas (her much-maligned health care plan might have actually done some good if the Republicans hadn't killed it in the nest), or is not a good politician, it is that she is exactly what the Republican Party has been gearing up for. They have waited for years to really get a chance to savage Clinton (not that Limbaugh doesn't every chance he gets). Their entire attack machine structure was honed to perfection during her husbands Presidency. The Republicans detest the Clintons the way a doctor detests cancer.

The beating Kerry took from the Republicans will look like amateur hour in comparison to what a national Clinton campaign will have to withstand.

The second problem is that every Republican candidate in the country will force every Democratic candidate in the country to answer for Sen. Clinton. Every seat in congress, in state houses and on school boards. The Democrats will have to cut through the noise machine before they will ever get a chance to get their message out. One of Kerry's biggest problems was not that he didn't "connect" with the people, its that he wasn't able to get his message across. He had good policy ideas, but spent most of his time fighting off attacks.

Sen. Clinton is popular, rightly so, but a run for the Presidency would cause more harm than good.