Could Clark Be a Stalking Horse for Hillary Clinton?

This sounds right on target
As strange as it may seem, this scenario appears to be right on target. A very smart and clever approach to getting the nomination for Hillary Clinton four years before her planned attempt.

It shows the required flexibility a smart candidate needs in today's unsettled political world. Hillary Clinton is smart enough to pull it off---IF Wes Clark is willing to accept her at the top of the ticket if his own status is running ahead of Bush. That's the unknown factor that change everything. Hillary would have to have a lot of trust in Clark's promises to go that route.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

Bill Clinton 'urging Hillary to run for White House'
Ananova:
Story filed: 14:33 Monday 22nd September 2003

Clinton 'urging Hillary to run for White House'

Former US President Bill Clinton is reportedly urging wife to stand for election to the White House.

Hillary Clinton, a Democratic Senator for New York, denies she will attempt to follow her husband's career path in the Presidential election next year.

But with evidence Democratic candidate General Wesley Clark is gathering growing support, Mr Clinton is trying to get his wife into the race, says a Time magazine report.

If Gen Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of Nato, wins the race to the White House it would scupper Mrs Clinton's hopes in 2008, when she is expected to run.

And with President George Bush's ratings on the slide, some Democrats are increasingly optimistic about Mr Clark's chances.

Two sources told Time magazine that Mr Clinton has been urging his wife to reconsider her decision not to enter the 2004 race.

Her biggest obstacle would be back-tracking on promises that she wants to remain in the Senate for another three years, a difficulty which her husband is now said to be mulling over.

Aides to the couple do not deny the claims but insist Mrs Clinton will remain a Senator until 2006. Mr Clinton reportedly described his wife and Gen Clark as the "two stars" of the Democratic party during a gathering earlier this month.

At the weekend, a Newsweek magazine poll showed Gen Clark as the favourite among registered Democrat voters. There are 10 Democratic candidates competing to oust Mr Bush.

Meanwhile, Mr Bush's approval rating has fallen, amid growing concerns at home about the war in Iraq and the economy.

New Yorkers Say Nay to Hillary White House Run
http://1010wins.com
New Yorkers Say Nay to Hillary White House Run
Sep 24, 2003 11:05 am US/Eastern

A growing number of New York voters, including almost six in 10 Democrats, don't want Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president in 2004, a statewide poll reported Wednesday.

The poll from Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion also found that two-thirds of New York voters take the former first lady at her word when she says she won't seek the White House next year.

New York voters are about evenly split on whether they would like to see Democrat Clinton run for the presidency someday.

In the latest Marist poll, 69 percent of New York voters, including 57 percent of Democrats, said they didn't want to see Clinton run in 2004. In an April poll from the Poughkeepsie-based pollster, 54 percent of New York voters said they didn't want her to run for the White House next year.

During a recent visit to the New York State Fair, Clinton said she was absolutely ruling out a presidential run in 2004. While speculation has continued since that she might make a late entry into the race, 67 percent of New York voters in the latest poll say they think she will stick to her pledge to serve out her full six-year Senate term that ends in 2006.

On running for the White House someday, 50 percent of New York voters said she should while 46 percent said she should never run for the presidency. The former first lady has not ruled out a presidential run in 2008.

Asked about the poll, spokesman Philippe Reines offered what has become the Clinton camp's mantra in response to such queries: "Senator Clinton has repeatedly said that she will serve out her full six year term. She loves her job, and is working on being the best senator she can be for the people of New York."

If Clinton were to jump into the 2004 race, most New York Democrats make her the clear front runner for the state's March 2 Democratic presidential primary. In that case, she led the field with 46 percent support to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut's 14 percent.

Marist pollster Lee Miringoff noted that 30 percent of the Democrats who said they would vote for Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary don't want her to run.

With Clinton not in the race, New York's Democratic voters had Lieberman on top at 23 percent followed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean at 13 percent and New York's Al Sharpton at 10 percent. The other seven Democratic candidates were all in single digits. The newest arrival to the campaign, former Gen. Wesley Clark, was at 6 percent among Democratic voters. Twenty-three percent of Democrats were undecided.

"Wesley Clark has some support, but clearly he has his work cut out for him in New York," Miringoff said.

The independent pollster noted that Dean's support had grown to 13 percent from just 4 percent in April, the sharpest increase among the candidates.

"The race in New York is clearly wide open on the Democratic side," Miringoff said.

The poll came out on the eve of a Democratic presidential debate in New York City.

On Tuesday, the Marist poll reported that Republican President Bush's approval rating was slipping in New York. It was 44 percent in the latest poll, down from 58 percent in April.

Marist's new telephone poll of 912 registered voters was conducted Sept. 15-18 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The error margin for sampling based on questions to 397 registered Democrats was plus or minus 5 percentage points.