Hillary Clinton Is In

Four days before Bush's State of the Union address, Hillary Clinton on her website has announced she's forming an exploratory committee and is definitely running. I suppose that means the official announcement that she's running will be after the exploratory committee does its thing. But this is par for most of the candidates and I don't mind. Senator Hillary Clinton is the first woman with a serious chance of winning the presidency and that's news.

Here's the story from Glenn Thrush of Newsday:

"I'm in. And I'm in to win."

With these words Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her hyped and historic bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on Saturday, her first stop on the treacherous road that could culminate in her inauguration as the nation's first woman commander in chief.

In a conversational two-minute video posted on her campaign Web site, the former first lady announced that she's set up a presidential exploratory committee.

"As we campaign to win the White House, we will make history and remake our future," Clinton, 59, said on HillaryClinton.com. "This campaign is our moment, our chance to stand up for the principles and values that we cherish."

Wasting little time, Clinton is traveling to Iowa next weekend, her maiden voyage to the first caucus state and an act of political triage: She's currently running fourth among Iowa's liberal Democratic voters.

I wonder if the tape was made before her trip to Asia or after. Her TV appearances over the last two days made her look like she had a bit of jet lag and in the tape she looks like herself again. I noticed she borrowed a couple of lines from John Edwards. Of course, half the Democratic field in 2004 borrowed lines from Bill Clinton and why not? Bill Clinton knew what he was doing when he ran for president. There are many good reasons to admire Bill and Hillary and I believe the senator would make a fine president: I'm just not sure she fully understands the current era. But I'll have no trouble supporting her if she wins.

Here's more on Senator Clinton's announcement from Patrick Healy of The New York Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s entry into the 2008 presidential contest yesterday set off rounds of e-mail messages and conference calls among both her allies and opponents, some of whom were shaking their heads that a major political event was happening early on a Saturday morning.

Advisers to some of her top 2008 rivals — Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts — replied within minutes to requests for comment, and signaled that the Clinton announcement meant that the 2008 race was truly under way.

(snip)

Clinton advisers said that they chose Jan. 20 as the target date for an announcement during a meeting in mid-December, and that Mrs. Clinton was “raring to go” on Friday.

Hillary Clinton's website and announcement can be found here (www.hillaryclinton.com).

Given that Bush's annual state of the union message has become something of a charade, I'm glad that Hillary Clinton made her announcement this weekend. Maybe it will suck some of the oxygen out of Bush's latest public relations push to remake his image and to peddle more war in the Middle East and to sell his nonsense about victory. After more than four years of war in Iraq, no one should pretend that Bush has accomplished anything of value for the United States. But that means sooner or later, Hillary Clinton is going to have to address her own misjudgments on the issue of Iraq. And perhaps the misjudgment of her husband. But let's save that for another day. The real story is that we have a wide open presidential race.