Bush Calls Hillary Clinton 'Formidable'

This is from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday that Sen. Hillary Clinton, a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is "formidable," but he declined to speculate on which Republicans might run for the White House in 2008.

"This is an unusual year because this is the first time there hasn't been a kind of natural successor in the party," Bush said in an interview with "CBS Evening News." "Two wide-open primaries with no sitting vice president running in either primary, so this is — I can't remember a time when it's been this open."

President Bush. Reuters File Photo

I have one simple question to ask here: Why is President Bush "speculating," or perhaps "goading" is another word, that Senator Hillary Clinton should run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008? I know there has been a lot of speculation in the mainstream "corporate" media about Clinton's front-running status as a Democratic candidate. But Clinton has some huge liabilities that both the corporate media and Bush will not talk about. The biggest liability is that she is pretty much despised by the Republican base, or possibly even moderate conservatives. And I don't think any amount of campaigning will result in shifting any conservative votes to her side.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton. AP File Photo

Something tells me that the Republicans would love to have Hillary run. They would love to bring up the past Clinton record--and certainly the Monical Lewisnky scandal--and use that against her in Swift Boat attack ads. If the Republicans can get John McCain to run against Clinton, could gather more support than Clinton in a race--McCain can gather support from both the Republican base, and the moderates and independents, due to his somewhat "maverick," and independent status. Of course, this is all speculation on my part, considering that I cannot get any poll results.

There is another aspect of this story that I'm a little suspicious of. President Bush refuses to speculate on Republican nominations for the 2008 presidential election? Mr. President, why do you refuse to speculate on the Republican nominations, when you're happy to talk about Hillary Clinton's supposed nomination? That irks me.

Oh, by the way--Mr. President, the last presidential election of which both political parties did not have sitting vice-presidents running for office was the 1952 presidential elections. The 1952 presidential elections pitted former general Dwight Eisenhower on the Republican ticket, verses Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson for the Democratic ticket. Eisenhower won the 1952 electon.