Veep

Over the weekend Wesley Clark made a speech where he essentially announced his candidacy in '08. I don't think Clark has the needed connections in the Democratic establishment to challenge Clinton. But, I think he'll make a better VP choice than John Edwards. Clark has a solid military background, is very intelligent, but not overly charismatic. He won't upstage Hillary, but will compliment her well.

The Republicans? I'm just wondering which Christian freak they're going to push. Will it be Rick Santorum, Bill Frist, Tom DeLay (LOL), or Jeb Bush? Newt's going to run, but that must be some kind of joke. The wild card is John McCain. He's just moderate enough to offer a serious challenge. However, I don't think the Republican establishment likes him, and I don't think the hard core wingers like him. Bush absolutely flamed him in the 2000 primaries, and it will look weird if McCain wins the nomination, and Bush does an about face and starts playing him up.

I'd love to do the ads for that one. Show clips from 2000, "that was then", show clips from the present "this is now"; "Which McCain are the Republican's running?"

Sure, it's still a very long way off, but in politics, trends are important. I don't see Bush's numbers rebounding any time soon.. New report today:

president's job ratings have fallen to 44 percent positive, 56 percent negative, the worst numbers of his presidency,

How about that? Most people in the United States think Bush is doing a crap job. It's the most important job in the world and most of the people you work for think you suck. In the modern business world, you get fired for those kinds of numbers.

Combine that with the on-going sliming and corruption of the Republican's, and the fact that American's are getting tired of their religious nut-baggery, I think it's a "slam dunk", so to speak.

One other good sign is the timing. Hillary is running for re-election in '06. That will focus a lot of media attention on her. It will be nice if the Republican's run a credible candidate, such as Rudy Giuliani. That would elevate the media exposure, and a decisive win would set the tone for the next 2 years. Unfortunately, I think they're going to just concede, and run some chump nobody has heard of before. Giuliani is making a lot of money with his business, and I doubt he's really that interested in running.

The one thing the Democrats need to be prepared for is the coming "swift boating" of Clinton. Figure out a strategy now. John Kerry got caught flat footed when they went after him, and speaking the truth didn't matter. My advice to Clinton - pre-empt it. Start talking about them now, start saying that you fully intend them to propagandize to discredit you. If you do that, when the media reports on the smears, they will most likely also contain "Ms. Clinton had warned such allegations would be made against her", and so on.

Imagine, a woman running for President. Not only that, but she's the wife of an ex-President. A popular one at that. It's in the bag.

** update **

"Any Republican who thinks she will be easy to beat has total amnesia about the Clintons," Gingrich said, adding that she has in her husband "the smartest American politician as her adviser."