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HILLARY Clinton's campaign overnight predicted a rapid end to the Democratic White House race next month as the press read the last rites to her quest to be the first woman president. With more party elders drifting to Barack Obama's camp and the media declaring the nominating battle all but over, Senator Clinton aides battled back with appeals for voters to be heard and for new donors to come forward. Even as he vowed no surrender from the former first lady, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said party bosses known as "superdelegates" would coalesce behind a candidate once the final...

A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges. Ordinarily, such files containing grand jury evidence and prosecutors' deliberations are never made public. But the estate of Sam Dash, a lifelong Democrat who served as the ethics adviser to Whitewater Independent...

WHITE House hopeful Hillary Clinton has claimed victory in the Democratic presidential primary in Indiana, saying it is "full speed on to the White House". With 85 per cent of the precincts reporting, US networks said Senator Clinton was leading rival Barack Obama by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, but had not yet called the race in the midwestern state. Senator Clinton said Senator Obama had recently predicted that Indiana would be the tiebreaker in their battle for the Democratic Party's nomination. "Well, tonight we've come from behind. We've broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full...

THE only filly in the legendary US Kentucky Derby, which Hillary Clinton urged her supporters to put their money on, broke both its ankles and was destroyed on the track after the race ended. Senator Clinton will be hoping Saturday's derby does not prove to be a political omen. Runner-up Eight Belles, whom Senator Clinton had urged supporters to put their money on as the sole female runner was humanely destroyed on the track minutes after the race ended. Barack Obama, Clinton's African-American rival for the Democratic White House nomination, may draw comfort from both the winning thoroughbred's name and...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised a stunning $3.5 million last night within hours of winning Pennsylvania, and her campaign says today's total may reach $10 million, giving her run a needed boost as she tries to knock Sen. Barack Obama from his front-runner perch. The two campaigns are up with their spin this morning, with each focusing on the next races and arguing they can win in November. Mr. Obama won a new endorsement from Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and may roll out a group of superdelegates who support him today. But Team Clinton — fueled with new money after...

US PRESIDENTIAL contender Barack Obama has wiped out his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's yawning lead in Indiana and trails by just five points in Pennsylvania, according to a new poll. Ahead of the crunch Pennsylvania primary next Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll suggested that Senator Obama has not suffered overly from his description of working-class voters as "bitter". The poll gave the former first lady a lead over Senator Obama of 46 per cent to 41 in Pennsylvania, down from double-digit margins in earlier polls, and also had her losing in both Indiana and North Carolina, which both vote...

Former Republican Georgia Rep. Bob Barr is considering a run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, according to FITNews. Barr, who joined the Libertarian Party after leaving Congress in 2003, is looking to attract conservatives who are unhappy with the choice of John McCain as the expected Republican presidential nominee. McCain and Barr are at odds primarily over the role of U.S troops in Iraq, although both agree that tough interrogation methods should not be permitted. FITNews wrote that Barr will receive the endorsement of Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, a GOP presidential candidate who is still technically in...

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has offered US Democrat presidential contender Hillary Clinton help with her campaign as the pair met in Washington before she headed to Pennsylvania to fight for her political survival. The New York senator took time out from her heavy campaigning schedule to meet Mr Rudd after he delivered a foreign policy speech to The Brookings Institution this morning Washington time. He is likely to speak to Democrat front runner Barack Obama on the telephone - he is already in Pennsylvania and a meeting couldn't be arranged - some time today and will meet Republican nominee John...

Now, I will be the first to admit that the GOP was very disappointing in the 2006 election cycle and although the Republicans have improved significantly in a lot of areas, they're still not doing as much as conservatives have asked them to do on spending, corruption, immigration, and foreign policy. That being said, while conservatives need to continue to hold the feet of the GOP to the fire, as we did in the illegal immigration fight, we should not forget the potential perils of having a Democratic President at this sensitive time in our nation's history. Today's Democratic Party...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forget Bill. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic presidential leader, has become the Republican candidates' favorite punching bag. The Republican hopefuls love to hate Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Mitt Romney argues she would turn the United States into a "big government, big taxation, welfare state." John McCain calls the New York senator an irresponsible guardian of taxpayer dollars. Rudy Giuliani claims she'd put the country "on defense against terrorism." And all three lambaste her on Iraq. At every turn, the leading GOP contenders are criticizing Clinton even as they are entangled in their own turbulent race...

The press reported on Tuesday that Sen. Hillary Clinton had scored a coup in the presidential race by winning the endorsement of a key black political leader in South Carolina, state Sen. Darrell Jackson. Now it has come to light that just days earlier, Clinton’s campaign reached a deal to pay Jackson’s consulting firm $10,000 a month through the 2008 elections – a deal worth more than $200,000. "Jackson had also been in talks with Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign about endorsing him and entering into a consulting contract for more than $5,000, sources said – raising questions about whether Jackson’s...

The 2008 Democratic presidential primary season has gotten off to a good start . . . for the Republicans. While political professionals of both parties see the 2008 election as very hopeful for the Democrats, there is no such thing as a lay down hand in presidential politics. Both parties start off with a minimum level of support of 45 percent. The battle will be for the remaining 10 percent of voters who are probably moderate and less attentive to the daily news. Unfolding events will, of course, be critical; and it is in this area that professionals, expecting continued...

In both theory and great expectations, Tuesday is the beginning of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. By nightfall, she will have won a lopsided re-election to the U.S. Senate, with plenty of money left over to start a presidential effort. She enjoys the sort of name recognition a president might envy and has the unalloyed good wishes of Democratic activists who have been waiting all these dark and awful years for a Clinton Restoration. After all, if the Bushes could do it -- one mediocre, the other incompetent -- then why not the brilliant and dazzling Clintons? The answer might be...

US Vice President Dick Cheney said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton could win the White House in 2008 and that a potential Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, is too inexperienced. Mrs Clinton, a New York Democrat who is running for re-election, is considered a likely contender for the White House in 2008. Mr Obama, serving his first term as a US senator from Illinois, has been touted recently as a possible candidate, something he said he would consider. "I think Hillary Clinton is a formidable candidate," Mr Cheney said in an interview with Fox News' Hannity and Colmes due to air...

LOOK out, Hillary - Bill is off the leash. The gobsmacking interview with Bill Clinton on "Fox News Sunday" is the first episode of reality television starring a former president of the United States. It's why God invented YouTube. Liberals love it, especially the Fox News Channel-bashing. Conservatives think it proves every insulting theory they've ever devised to encompass this gargantuan American personality. In truth, the whole performance defies reason. It was especially odd to hear Clinton complain that "Bush's neocons" faulted him for being "too obsessed with bin Laden." Really? All I ever heard from Bush's neocons - most...

Sen. Hillary Clinton has spoken up in support of her husband Bill’s defense of his anti-terror efforts, saying she’s tired of Democrats being pushed around on national security issues. "I just think that my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take this,” she said on Monday in remarks reported by Newsday. In a heated discussion with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday,” Bill Clinton said that as president, he did more than many of his conservative critics to pursue al-Qaida, and alleged that President Bush didn’t try to stop terrorism in the eight...

Former second lady Tipper Gore is urging her husband, Al, to challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2008 presidential nomination - in what may be a score-settling move against the woman Mrs. Gore has long regarded as "difficult" and overly ambitious. "If he were going to run in the future, of course I would support him," Mrs. Gore told ABC News' Claire Shipman on Tuesday. "I think he'd be a fantastic president. He already got a majority of votes of people in this country once, and so that says something." Relations between Mrs. Gore and the first lady-turned-presidential front-runner have never...

We’ve heard a lot about why Hillary Clinton will be a strong candidate in 2008. In fact, there are whole books on the subject. However, Hillary Clinton is actually a much weaker candidate than many people seem to believe. Here’s a short, but sweet primer that may help explain why that is the case: 1. Likeability and Charisma If you look back at the last eight presidential elections, at least, the more likeable candidate has won every time. That’s unfortunate for Hillary because unlike her slick, gregarious husband, she does not have the gift of gab or a warm personality....

While Al Gore is commanding all the attention of those searching for the "un-Hillary," there's another candidate who is quietly doing the work it actually takes to run for president. While Al Gore continues to protest that he isn't running, there's another candidate who is privately making no bones about his future prospects. While Al Gore has yet to acknowledge that he lost, there's another candidate who is belatedly addressing the mistakes that caused his defeat. The "un-Gore," "un-Hillary" is John Kerry. He is doing everything Gore isn't doing to prepare for a presidential run in 2008. He is running...

There are days when you get up and stare at the front page of the newspaper and you just have to put the paper back down. May 30 was one of those days. After escaping for the long Memorial Day weekend, one returns to the real world Tuesday morning. But those who read The Washington Post are reminded that some people live forever in the world of make believe. Witness the front-page headline: "Clinton Is A Politician Not Easily Defined: Senator's Platform Remains Unclear." That is to politics what "The DaVinci Code" is to theology. When you pick up the...

2008 White House hopeful Hillary Clinton is blaming right wing "ideologues" for denying women access to contraceptives - leaving them no choice but to end their unwanted pregnancies with abortion. The move to withhold contraceptives "was started by a small group of extreme ideologues who claim the right to impose their personal beliefs on the overwhelming majority of the American people," Mrs. Clinton declared in an email to supporters on Wednesday. "They're waging this silent war on contraception by using the power of the White House and their right-wing allies in Congress," she complains, adding, "and so far, they're getting...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could have trouble carrying her own state if she runs for president in 2008 and Republicans nominate either former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani or Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a poll of New York voters reported Tuesday. Lee Miringoff of Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion said the statewide poll, conducted in conjunction with New York City's WNBC-TV, is bad news for the former first lady given concerns nationally among some Democrats about her "electability." In a theoretical matchup for the 2008 presidential race, the WNBC/Marist poll found Giuliani favored by 50 of New York...

"She's a former first lady, a United States senator, and a potential 2008 presidential candidate. But to hear Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tell it, all of that pales in comparison to her real childhood dreams," reported Newsday in an attempted puff piece on the junior Senator from New York. "My whole life has been a speed bump," she said to laughs." Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Failed at everything she ever tried, so she decided to go into politics. And this woman wants to be President? "'I wanted desperately to be an Olympic athlete,' Clinton said Monday at...

New York Post columnist John Podhoretz is warning that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will win the 2008 presidential election unless Republicans start focusing now on a plan to defeat her. "If you Republicans don't get real serious real fast, if you don't wise up and settle down and get focused, it will be Hillary up there on the podium taking the oath of office" in January 2009, he writes in his new book: "Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President Unless ..." Podhoretz says the answer to that question is yes -- and he offers the...

Asked to say one nice thing about President Bush, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton went one better: She named two things. "He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York," Clinton said Tuesday night during a talk at the National Archives about her life in politics. Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said that despite their "many disagreements about many, many issues," she has always had a good personal relationship with the president. "He's been very willing...

Immigration is a big topic this week. And guess which unlikely duo has come around to the American people's view that our borders are out of control? In the past couple weeks, both Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have called for increased border security. We welcome their voices of support to the effort to protect our nation's security. Now let's see if their actions match their rhetoric. Republicans in Congress should take this opportunity to act. The House should immediately pass a new stand-alone bill that focuses exclusively on controlling our borders. Then the Senate...

SENATOR Hillary Clinton is the favourite among Democratic voters to be the party's candidate in the 2008 presidential election, a new poll shows. But only 12 per cent of Democrat voters believe the wife of former president Bill Clinton can overcome the hostility of US Republicans to take the White House, according to the Financial Dynamics poll for The Hotline political newsletter. The New York senator had support from 38 per cent of Democrats, a 24 percentage point lead over nearest rival Senator John Kerry, the losing Democratic candidate in the 2004 election. "The depth and breadth of Hillary Clinton's...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was in Senate reelection mode on Wednesday when she collected the endorsements of top officials from New York City's two firefighters unions. But at the ceremony announcing their support, rank and file members of New York's Bravest were nowhere in sight. "Mrs. Clinton chose to make a modest, almost quiet, appearance with about a dozen or so union officials in front of Ladder Company 157 on Flatbush Avenue," reported the New York Times. "The only audience members were hastily alerted reporters and camera crews, clustered on an empty sidewalk, instead of the crush of star-struck...

2008 Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton already has a campaign staff that dwarfs the size of Sen. John McCain's staff, who's leading the pack for the GOP presidential nomination. But while Clinton denies that she's thinking beyond her Senate reelection this fall, the New York Post reports that "her political machine is so massive that it's more than four times" as big as Team McCain. On the other hand, the Arizona Republican relies on just five staffers and a half-dozen consulting firms spread between his campaign and his Straight Talk America PAC, the paper says. Mrs. Clinton's 20 troops...

Ex-president Bill Clinton has agreed that when it comes to speaking out on controversial issues, his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, will have the last word from here on out. Mr. Clinton has promised to clear all future pronouncements with his wife after he embarrassed her by lobbying for the Dubai Ports World deal, which she publicly opposed. "He knows it's Hillary's time now," an adviser close to both Clintons told the New York Daily News, which said Mrs. Clinton invoked her veto power out of fear that her husband's wayward comments might hurt her 2008 presidential bid. "Hillary has final...

Former-President Bill Clinton insisted yesterday that he was in complete agreement with wife Hillary's objections on the Dubai ports buyout - even though he reportedly advised the Dubai royal family on how to make the deal fly. "I supported Hillary's position, and the news reports to the contrary were wrong,” Mr. Clinton claimed while speaking in Harlem yesterday. What about that phone call Joe Lockhart, his former White House scandal spokesman, made to the Dubai Ports World chairman to lobby for the deal? (The call was made to Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, according to congressional testimony by DPW CEO...

Ex-president Bill Clinton said Sunday that the Bush administration has not done enough to increase port security since the 9/11 attacks, calling the oversight unbelievable. Addressing the Centennial Celebration at Pace University in New York, Clinton complained: "I still really can't believe we only check five percent of our containers at all the ports in America when we've had now for four years a study saying that unless we do ten to twenty percent, there's no deterrent effect at all. " The former president made no mention of his own role advising a Dubai company on how to overcome American...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton told supporters at an Orlando, Florida fundraiser Friday night that Republicans have "had enough" of President Bush, adding that GOP ethics scandals and troop casualties in Iraq have helped Democrats. "I think people are starting to wake up," Mrs. Clinton told donors gathered at a Lake Gatlin private home, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "And I'm so relieved, because there has been incalculable damage done in the past five years," she claimed. "I have so many Republicans who say to me: `I've had enough. I didn't sign on for this.'" According to the Sentinel: "Clinton...

Six years after battling her way to a Senate seat from her newly adopted state by campaigning night and day, Hillary Rodham Clinton is coasting toward re-election _ and piling up money that could go toward a run for the White House in 2008. The New York Democrat has had no well-known GOP opponent in her bid for re-election since prosecutor Jeanine Pirro dropped out in frustration in December. The Republican expected to step in, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, is a no-name in most of the state, and polls show Clinton with a commanding lead against all potential challengers....

WASHINGTON -- Growing numbers of Americans oppose a presidential bid by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in 2008 -- and favor a run by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- amid broad public willingness to elect a woman president, according to a nationwide poll released Sunday. Advertisement The President's Day survey conducted for Hearst Newspapers by the Siena Research Institute of Siena College in Loudonville, covered 1,120 registered voters and was completed Feb. 10. Some 48 percent of survey participants said Rice "should run" for president at the conclusion of President Bush's two terms -- an increase of 6 percentage...

There is no question Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is running for president in 2008. Senators don’t normally raise $33 million to run for reelection against a nominal opponent. But there are a number of large hurdles Clinton must jump before she can be elected. Too often the focus is on just one of her challenges, instead of a coalition of all of them. While Sen. Clinton must be viewed as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, there is still plenty of time for other candidates from within her party to emerge as viable alternatives. Whether it’s former Gov. Mark Warner...

PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: Madame Tussaud's wax rendition of Sen. Hillary Clinton sports an appropriately frozen smile. Photo: N.Y. Post: Jim Alcorn Here's a philosophical question: Isn't creating a wax figure of Hillary Clinton just a wee bit redundant? In her robin's-egg blue pantsuit, strenuously coiffed hair, and a smile plastered on her puss that says, "Don't eff with me, buddy," Her Hillaryness serves as inspiration for the newest dummy to grace Madame Tussaud's in Midtown. All of which makes me wonder: How can you tell the real one from the fake? And, perhaps more importantly: Is there really much difference?...

All last week the so-called Mainstream Media (MSM) focused on GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman's Sunday talk show comments that Hillary Clinton is an "angry" woman and Americans don't elect "angry candidates." All true. Hillary is indeed an angry woman. She is your typical liberal: unhappy with everything, sour and generally unpleasant to be around. But she isn't the only angry candidate running in 2008. Indeed, the MSM revealed themselves for what they truly are: biased. Because the angriest candidate of them all once again revealed the depths of his bitter, spoiled anger – and got away with it. John McCain...

WASHINGTON — Hillary blew it. That was the instant reaction in the room where I watched Tuesday night's State of the Union address. It was such a simple thing, but the senator from New York missed her cue. It was this: smile and show the nice people that you're a human being and that you have a sense of humor. But no. When President George W. Bush tossed a valentine to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, the senator sat stone-faced, nary a crack in her facade. Catty? Not at all. Shaken, perhaps, but not stirred. Truthfully, I'm pulling for...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton remains strong for her re-election bid this year, and a majority of New York voters think she would make a fine president, a statewide poll showed Friday. New Yorkers are not nearly as well disposed to the notion of Republican Gov. George Pataki running for president, according to the poll. Pataki, who is considering a run for the White House, announced in July he would not seek a fourth, four-year term this year. The poll, from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, found Democrat Clinton sporting 2-1 leads over her best-known potential challengers for...

The long-awaited final report by Independent Counsel David Barrett, to be released today, was severely censored by court order but not enough to sufficiently obscure its importance. As long forecast, it alleges serious corruption in the Clinton administration's Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The question is what was contained in 120 pages removed by the judges. These allegations explain why Barrett finally has closed down after 10 years the last prosecution under the lapsed independent counsel statute. Its target, Henry Cisneros, long ago resigned as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a plea bargain after admitting he...

Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday defended Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for describing the House of Representatives as a "plantation," saying he felt her choice of words referred to a "consolidation of power" in Washington that squeezes out the voters. The senator told CNN's "American Morning" he believed that Clinton was merely expressing concern that special interests play such a large role in writing legislation that "the ordinary voter and even members of Congress who aren't in the majority party don't have much input." "There's been a consolidation of power by the Republican Congress and this White House in which, if...

WASHINGTON - They are two of the nation's highest profile Democrats, now taking aim at the White House. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., told a largely African-American audience in New York Monday that Republicans run the House of Representatives like a "plantation" where dissent is squelched. As for the White House, Clinton said: "We have cronyism, we have incompetence. I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country." Her words came just hours after former Vice President Al Gore, in Washington, accused the president of repeatedly breaking...

<p>August 9, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday asked for a powwow with President Bush at his Texas ranch to confront him over White House reluctance to OK extra money to monitor the health of Ground Zero workers.</p>