[nopardons]

I am shocked at those, who supposedly know about politics, yet manage to writ such unmittigated drivel, and those here, who swallow it as whole cloth !

There is NO backroom politics anymore, no how, no way, no nothing and Hitlery! will NOT be named Dem presidential candidate, by acclimation, at their convention. Those who claim that, either in articles, on T.V., or in posts on FR, just do NOT inderstand how politics work/enjoy frightening themselves silly, with imagined plots of their own devising.

No Dem, in the 9 dwarves group, is going to allow her to steam roll them out of their hard won primary wins. Today, when a person wins the primary ( unless the state allows for split votes at the convention ), those sworn to cast their state ballots, for XX, MUST give them to that person and that person alone, until the winner is totatled and then, by aclimation ALL of the votes are given to the Dem candidate who has the highest totals. If she doesn't venture out into the likes of Iowa, New Hampsire et al, she has NO, none, nada, zilch, bupkis delegate votes.

If backroom politics REALLy was still viable, the powers that be, knowing full well,Bill Clinton's background/history, would have NEVER have allowed him to run for president in the first place.That's how it USED to work, no longer does work, and is why this kind of garbage is just a lot of sound and fury/meaningless garbage.

Yes, Hitlery! yearns to be president again. No, she does NOPT ever go after that which she can NOT win; especially if it means that she's going to have an emense problem to boot and President Bush, the upturning economy, etc. IS more than she can overcome right now. Arnold's win in California didn't help matters any either.

Will she run in '08 ? Probably; however nothing is certain.

Jeb Bush will NOT run in '08. You can bet the manse ( if you have one ) on that!

Will Rudy run for her Senate seat in '06 ? Maybe, maybe not ... he'd also like to be govenor.

[ModelBreaker]

Your point out that, in 2004, the nine dwarfs will have convention delegates pledged to them because of the modern nominating process. From that, you conclude that Hillary cannot get the nomination in 2004. If, say, Howard Dean comes into the convention with a majority of delegates pledged to him, then of course, no backroom deals will make Hillary the nominee.

But if no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, there has to be a process by which the delegates are eventually released--otherwise the dems could not nominate anyone. This eventuality could result in a HRC nomination.

[doug from upland]

You are missing something very important. What if the person who gets all the delegates has a terminal "accident"?

[wai-ming]

Since when have the Clintons been known to play by the rules?

If there is a devious way for Hillary to capture the nomination and ascend to the Presidency (with or without a fair election), she will try it. I'm not writing her off until Nov. 4, 2004.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

There is NO backroom politics anymore...

While I tend to agree with you on a national level, there was certainly SOME backroom politics involved in making Hillary! a senator in New York.