Let the hysteria begin!

I think I just heard Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael the Savage Weiner, Ann Coulter, and the rest of the wingnut brigade rubbing their hands together in anticipation of renewed cash flow from the faithful:

For the first time, a majority of Americans say they are likely to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton if she runs for president in 2008, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday.

The survey shows that the New York senator and former first lady has broadened her support nationwide over the past two years, though she still provokes powerful feelings from those who oppose her.

Clinton commands as much strong support — but more strong opposition — as George W. Bush did in a Newsweek poll in November 1998, two years before the 2000 election. She is in slightly stronger position than then-vice president Al Gore, the eventual 2000 Democratic nominee, was in 1998.

"Over time, Clinton fatigue has dissipated ... and people are looking back on the Clinton years more favorably," says Andrew Kohut, director of the non-partisan Pew Research Center. In a Pew poll released this month, Kohut called former president Bill Clinton and the senator "comeback kids" because of their rising ratings.

Nothing like a mass exodus of jobs, decreasing health care coverage, a war based on lies that's going nowhere, and a stated policy to gut Social Security to make a blowjob seem just not so important anymore.

Now, I'm not a big fan of Hillary Clinton. I think in her efforts to be "moderate", she's sold us down the river, and I'm still angry with her, just as I was at John Kerry, for buying the bullshit about Bush's war. If I knew it was bullshit, how come they didn't?

Then there's the question of whether this is the best candidate we can come up with? Frankly, I'm not thrilled with any of the options available. The one person I think I could enthusiastically support whose name has been mentioned is Russ Feingold, and somehow I don't think a progressive Jew who's in the midst of even an amicable divorce is going to cut the mustard once Karl Rove gets hold of him.

Don't kid yourself, folks. When a woman becomes president of the United States, it's going to be a Republican, not a Democrat. Because only Nixon could go to China.

(Middle Earth Journal has more...)