correct. many women, especially single women who would not have otherwise turned out to vote, will turn out in big numbers because of the "chic" idea of electing the first women president.
she won't be running as a political candidate - she will be running as a celebrity.
Its to early to make solid predictions of course - but rght now, I feel that if we run someone like Frist or an unknown governor against her, that the odds are that she and Richardson win it in 2008. We need to mix it up, we need Rice on the ticket for example.
I'm quite worried if Hillary wins the primary. It'd be tough "mixing it up" because most men would be very uncomfortable voting for a woman in the first slot. If Rice has first slot, we'll be battling low turnout for 2 reasons: (1) prolife vote unless Rice makes very strong pro-life changes in policy, (2) men won't be enthusiastic about choosing between 2 female presidents. But if Rice is in the 2nd slot, that'd scream "token black female" to many people. It'll be very, very tough selecting the right candidate if Hillary looks like she's a shoo-in to win the nomination...
If Hillary doesn't look like she's winning, we'll have a much wider field to pick out from like you note.
2008 is a long time away though. If you asked FR if John Kerry could win the nomination, you'd get a lot of laughs.
I'm not sure what Richardson's prospects are for national elective office for the immediate future. The Peregrine scandal could be too much baggage for a VP candidate.