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She could have gathered 2000 screaming, sigh waving supporters...
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"sigh waving supporters?"
I hope that was a typo. If it wasn't; I do not want to know!
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I suspect a lot of people thought she announced two years ago.
You are one of my favorite posters.She blinked:)
I disagree on the timing issue. The 'stealth announcement' allows her to continue acting as if she's just New York's senator for another several months, while at the same time turning the fund raisers loose at full speed. She gets the advantage of being a candidate without the national-scale responsibility for her actions that a candidate would have. It's a classic Clinton move.
It's January of 07, nothing that happens in this stage of the "campaign" (honestly there is no campaign yet, most Americans just aren't interested enough in politics to pay any attention to any campaiging 22 months before the election) matter at all. And everybody has been assuming she's going to run in 08 since she ran for Senator in 2000, so there's no reason for the announcement to be a big deal, all she's doing is confirming that 6 years worth of rumors are correct, BFD.
This opening is geared to do two things--hold her base of support from defecting to other candidates and most important, to neurtralize her sky-high negatives.
"Let's chat." How threatening is that? What could be more benign? In a week or two the media whores will be effervescing over "the New Hillary" a pleasant, well-spoken(fortune spent on speech lessons the last year or so), sensible security Mom who just wants to do what's right for America.
We won't be hearing too much about Bush after the initial gambit, because she will want to be inoffensive to all, plus, she knows full well that he won't be the issue by election time. She just has to pay her dues now to establish her bona fides to the party's hatemongers.
Hillary deliberately avoided making a splashy entrance. She intended fully to slip into the water quietly and start the long swim upstream to where people will say "Hey, she's not so bad. I think she's changed--mellowed--let's give her a chance."
Of course it will all be phoney as a three dollar bill but then so was Billyboy, and thanks to the blessings of mass democracy, our nitwit neighbors picked him to lead us for the duration.
Either way, it'll be long forgotten by the time the real action starts...
As Dennis Miller said, "she wrote in her autobiography that she didn't know Bill was cheating on her. You didn't know Hillary? I don't think you are smart enough to be my President."
I think she was doing this out of crisis managment. She is getting BURIED in announcements of others runing for president.
You also have Nancy Pelosi setting up a "shadow presidency" (ala parlementary style opposition party which shadows the sitting prime minister) with her superfluous committees and her PR stunt resolution to encourage the enemies of america. [democrats vote so americans die] Seriously, every vote by a democrat is a vote for blood letting.
I don't think it matters at all. Hilary clinton is a known quantity. Even if she did it in perfect announcement time, it would have been ignored.
This is for the competition. I bet there were other democrats thinking of running. This was the finger in the dyke. ( or is that vice versa?)
She wants to "chat" - Lord help us!......
And THAT is exactly what she wants you to think.
It is all staged so that she can make a GLORIOUS come back.
I totally agree with this analysis. What really ticks me off is when I hear Republican pundits on TV stating that she can win.