Clinton Gauntlet Has Been Laid Down - Hillary In

Caption States - Question: What is your intention in 2008? Answer: Well ... That depends on what the definition of is ... is. Cartoon Credit: Stop Her Now (www.stophernow.com)

Clinton Gauntlet Has Been Laid Down – Hillary In

In her first statements she suggests that this isn’t just a campaign for the presidency, but the beginning of a conversation with the American people.

Excuse me, while we at MAXINE take time to tune out of the conversation … but seriously watch the manipulation of the American people.

Take this report for example (please note what is stated and when in the section about "Polls").

Excerpts from Bloomberg News -

Hillary Clinton Takes First Step in Bid Toward U.S. Presidency
By Kristin Jensen - Jan. 20 (Bloomberg)

New York Senator Hillary Clinton today took an initial step toward a bid to become the first female U.S. president, after months of speculation that she would enter the race.

Clinton, 59, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, said on her Web site that she is forming an exploratory committee to consider a White House run.

"I'm in. And I'm in to win,'' the senator said on her Web site. She's already the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, leading rivals such as former vice presidential candidate John Edwards and Illinois Senator Barack Obama by as much as 19 percentage points in surveys taken during the last two months.

While polls indicate that Clinton has the best shot yet for a woman to take the top job in the White House, she also faces a wall of opposition across the country. Her unfavorable ratings hover in the 40 percent range, well above Edwards or Obama. She also has to overcome what she calls "the scars'' from her failed health-care plan in the early 1990s.
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Clinton has already shown that she can compete in the big money race to the White House. She raised more than $50 million for last year's successful Senate reelection campaign even as she lacked any serious competition. By contrast, Edwards, 53, raised just under $34 million for his failed presidential run in 2004.

Hurdles
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Republican donor and Texas businessman Dick Collins last year set up a Web site called "Stop Her Now'' with a banner that says it's "rescuing America from the radical ideas of Hillary Clinton.'' The site features cartoons of Clinton, news on her activities and a joke of the week about her.

"It's not personal, it's political,'' Collins, 59, said in an interview. "She's a very ambitious, calculating, tough politician. I think she would be wrong for the country.''

Polls

A recent WNBC/Marist poll found that 33 percent of Democratic leaning voters support Clinton for president, compared with 14 percent for Edwards and 12 percent for Obama. The Nov. 27-Dec. 13 poll was taken before Edwards's official announcement.
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Yet in a survey of all 967 registered voters, 48 percent said they would like to see Clinton seek the presidency; 50 percent said they would not. Only Republicans John McCain, an Arizona senator, and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, had more people saying they should run than they shouldn't.

``There's a cottage industry that has spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to define Hillary Clinton,'' said Terry McAuliffe, one of her advisers and the former head of the Democratic National Committee, in an interview before the announcement. "Republicans are scared of her -- rightfully so. They've spent a lot of money against her.''

Health Care

Clinton jumped into the national spotlight during the 1992 presidential race when she and her husband Bill proclaimed they were a "two-for-one'' package for the White House. After Bill Clinton took office, he put his wife in charge of overhauling the nation's health-care system and providing universal insurance.

"I have the scars from that debate,'' Clinton said in a December interview. "We still have a problem. It is the single issue that CEOs talk to me about on a continuing basis.''
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You see? It has already started ... the manipulation ... a poll that was reproted December 21, 2006 out of Iowa (caucus straw poll) had Hillary fourth behind third place (are you ready for this) Tom Vilsack - WHO? - Tom Vilsack! - WHO? - TOM VILSACK! (Political Experience: Governor, State of Iowa, 1998-present / Senator, Iowa State Senate, District 49, 1992-1998 / Mayor, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 1987-1992.)

This from KCCI - DES MOINES, Iowa -

The poll asked Iowa Democrats which candidates they would vote for if the 2008 Democratic caucus were held today.

The top three candidates were Sen. John Edwards at 22 percent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at 22 percent and Vilsack at 12 percent. U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York came in fourth at 10 percent.
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