You can't put any weight at all on those fantasy straw polls like the one at Daily Kos. Those polls only get the opinions of those highly motivated to respond, and who are the most highly motivated to respond? Those who are ardently ant-Hillary and want to push her numbers down.

The reality is that if Hillary runs she will be like the incumbent in the Democratic field. The nomination will be hers to lose. She already has the best precinct captains and local pols lined up in Iowa and New Hampshire, as she's known many of those people since 1992 at least, and has been working unofficially campaigning behind the scenes for some time now. Iowa and New Hampshire set the tone, and in those states, organization and having the right people are far more important than riding some wave of momentum. Howard Dean had the momentum last time in Iowa, but John Kerry had the very best organizers, and look who won. All the straw polls in the world weren't worth a damn on caucus day, because there are only a certain number of "opinion leaders" whose words carry any weight. Hillary will have those people in her back pocket.

Also not to be underestimated is that her campaign will be effectively run by the best, most talented, campaigner of them all, Bill Clinton. Do you really think Hillary is going to lose Iowa or New Hampshire when she and Bill will be going door to door saying, "this country's gone to hell the last eight years, let us go back and fix the mess"? Hillary is going dwarf every other candidate in fundraising by a country mile, and she is going to win Iowa and New Hampshire. It will be almost impossible to deny her the nomination.

Also like it or not, there could be considerable backlash to an Anybody But Hillary movement in 2008. The Democratic Party relies heavily on female voters and the gender gap between the parties. If you have liberal democrats rejecting the first viable female presidential candidate the party has ever had, whats going to happen? Opponents of the Democrats, rightly or wrongly, will jump all over the Party and say Hillary getting rejected was sexism. That liberals didn't vote for Hillary because she's a woman and they either don't think a woman can win a general election for President, or worse don't think a woman can BE President. So the GOP is looking gleefully at 2008, because either they'll have Hillary as the nominee or they'll have an opposing party they can brand as sexists.

If Democrats reject Hillary in favor of yet another male WASP candidate (somebody like Warner), it could do lasting damage to the party. It could alienate feminists who will think that if the Democrats don't nominate the most famous, most credible female presidential candidate they've ever had or maybe ever will have, then they aren't ever going to nominate a woman. This could erode the generation gap and help the Republicans in the general election.

Gore is the only one who could beat Hillary, because he's the only one who could match her organization and money. But I think Al Gore realizes the abovementioned issues surrounding a Hillary candidacy and that the party probably can't really afford to NOT nominate Hillary if she's seriously running. Which is likely why he's repeatedly saying he won't run. I can't see Gore running unless, and only unless, Hillary doesn't run. Also the Clinton white house record is the Gore white house record, so you'd have a hard time framing the debate anyway.

If you are really ABH (Anybody But Hillary), concentrate on getting the Democrats control of the Senate back in the fall elections. Because the only way I see Hillary not running, and not being nominated, is if the Democrats regain the Senate and suddenly she can be majority chairman of some committee or even displace Harry Reid as majority leader. That might tempt her not to run.

Hillary is toast. As we get closer to ZOO8 watch the Hillary haters on the right come drooling, and the Dem leadership will smell their own blood in the water. Hillary brings out the worst in droves - talk about motivating a base. This meme, just like the one that killed Dean: "he's a hothead" killed him.

Gore's the man, one more global warming related disaster, a major melt, a real bad storm, gas at $4/gallon, anything like this and he's a lock. Gore is not just for breakfast anymore.

Cripes, I hope!!!

Al Gore will not run against Hillary Clinton, because a Gore/Clinton primary battle would put the Clinton/Gore administration under a microscope and have them fighting each other over their shared legacy. In places like Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as in the DLC, the Clintons and Gore have the same supporters. It would be like family members running against each other, it just isn't going to happen.

Besides Gore only wants to talk about global warming, he does not want to talk foreign policy and farm subsidies and the defecit.

Its ironic that Gore is now the darling of the left wing liberal progressives. I can recall back in 2000 having many a shouting argument with fellow left wingers who hated Gore. They were incensed over his pushing Clinton to sign the welfare reform bill, they were incensed over his membership in the DLC, and they were outraged by his choice of Joe Lieberman as his runningmate. Bush got to the White House in part because some of these fellow liberals either stayed home on election night 2000 in protest or voted for Ralph Nader on the Green ticket. Ralph Nader's vote totals in Florida exceeded the difference between Bush and Gore. So Bush got the white house in part because the left wing couldn't completely unite behind Gore, who was seen as a flaming moderate.

Fast forward to now, and suddenly the anti-Hillary backlash has these same liberals looking at Gore as the left wing's best hope. These people have spent the last five years wishing they could take back their votes for Nader, and want to so bad that they want Gore re-nominated so they can have another chance to vote for him. Gore, whom I've read is a very frequent blogger to political boards like this under assumed names, must be amused...

as crappy as that times story was, everybody knows Bill is laying pipe all over town. you think it won't matter, but it does.

People don't care about Bill Clinton's private life. The fact is Clinton was always popular, he was elected twice, and had he been Constitutionally able to run a third time, he'd have been elected again. Everyone knows this. The man is a gifted politician and people relate to him.

So what we'll have in 2008 is the Clintons implying, without actually saying it, that voters CAN in fact elect Bill Clinton again. They can do it by electing Hillary. Bill's presidency was a partnership between the two of them, and Hillary's presidency would also be a partnership. Hillary and Bill are political junkies, they live for campaigning. It is going to be very enticing to voters, who now realize how good we had it during Bill's presidency, to send them back to the White House to fix the Bush mess.

In fact Hillary could announce during the primaries that Bill is her designate to be National Security Advisor or Secretary of State, effectively promising a co-presidency where she would handle the domestic agenda and Bill would handle foreign policy.

Clinton/Clinton can't happen, because the vice president has to be able to become President, and Bill Clinton cannot become President again due to term limits.

She could however choose Al Gore to be VP again, there are no rules on how many terms one can serve as VP. Then it would be Clinton/Gore all over again, they could just get out all their old campaign material because the names won't have changed.

"Clinton/Gore-- We Want Some More!"

Or she could choose Dianne Feinstein as her runningmate. That way if the Democrats regain the House, and Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker, the top three in the presidential line of succession would all be women.