Posted 3:54 PM by Robert

Tim Noah Has His Finger On The Pulse Of America!

... or something.

In response to a lot of thoroughly irresponsible chatter, Mr. Noah instructed us all:

There's a powerful political movement afoot to draft Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for president in 2004. Its partisans are committed almost to the point of fanaticism, and their number is growing by the hour. This thing is an absolute juggernaut. Even so, the Draft Hillary '04 forces probably won't secure their candidate's Democratic nomination. Why not? Because they're all Republicans!

Yep. They're all Republicans.

So maybe Mr. Noah can explain to Howard Fineman that it just cannot be true that one of Senator Clinton's closest friends and advisers, someone who is no less than a hard-boiled insider, actually let fly with some thoroughly irresponsible chattering interview that justifies - even remotely - Mr. Fineman's preposterous statement:

Some dreams never die, including one clung to by loyal Clintonistas: that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the Democrats’ presidential nominee next year. Is there a chance she would get into the race? “That depends on what you mean by ‘get into the race’,” one of her closest friends and advisers explained to NEWSWEEK. ... “You’d have to have Howard Dean not wrapping it up, and being an angry, wounded front runner,” this adviser said. “You’d have to have two of the other challengers tearing each other apart in primary after primary. Then Hillary could come in, well in advance of the convention, and say, ‘Look, somebody has to save the party’.”...

Party and elected officials—the so-called superdelegates—are free to shift allegiance, and could form an instant core of Clinton support. Should she make a dramatic entrance next summer, the senator might be able to draw on the help of some savvy campaign veterans (and Clinton loyalists) now in the employ of other candidates. If Sen. Joe Lieberman’s campaign fades, for example, she might recruit his top pros, media handler Mandy Grunwald and pollster Mark Penn.


Gee, aren't those "party officials" included in the so-called superdelegates mostly people who have their jobs because of the Clintons? You know, the same people that Howard Dean says he wants to get rid of?

And, let's see if I understand this reasoning. We know that if Sen. Joe Lieberman’s campaign fades, for example, she might recruit his top pros, media handler Mandy Grunwald and pollster Mark Penn.

So if General Clark's campaign "fades," for example? What happens then?

UPDATE: More people who must all be Republicans, even though they're cooling their buns in the Iowa. That zany Adam Nagourney writes: Parts of her speech directly echoed what President Clinton said in a speech to Iowa Democrats here over the summer.

"Directly echoed?" The Times is boldly going where no English speaker has ever gone before! "Directly echoed?"