For the last time, I am not a hillary bot. I haven't even decided if I will support her. Obama interests me and so does Bill Richardson (being the first hispanic nominee would be as historic as the first female nominee or the first black nominee) Hillary annoyed me, as she did everyone else, with her waffling on the Iraq war, and I was particularly upset that she qualified her position on the torture issue, saying that torture was acceptable only if "tens of millions of lives were proven to be at stake" I personally think there should be a zero tolerance on torture.

But on the other hand, she's the best known/most visible democrat (other than her husband) on a worldwide basis and has a solid progressive record. Mole, you wrote in your blog a while back about meeting Bill Clinton at a fundraiser, saying he was a hero of yours and such. Are you saying that if you met Bill Clinton on the campaign trail again, and he said, "voting for her is voting for me, please stand with us this one more time?", that you wouldn't consider it? I think people are underestimating just how visible he's going to be on the campaign trail. Bill and Hillary will be running as a team, just as they did in '92 and '96, and a lot of democrats will find it hard to turn their backs on them.

I want to clinton, obama, richardson, edwards .etc make extensive arguments for their candidacies, and hopefully one of them will stand out. Right now Hillary seems like Kerry in '04 and Obama like Howard Dean. Obama will probably end up the frontrunner, as Dean did, by later in the year due to netroots. But Hillary's going to be a serious factor just like Kerry was, hanging tough for the big show.