2008: Two Dems Running?

Even though I live in heartland Kentucky, I'm still on Eastern Standard time. So, I just thought I'd toss this out before I go bed. If Hillary Clinton runs for President, she's going to be the Democratic nominee. Although moderate hand-wringers will worry, Hillary would run as the presumptive nominee and is already taking political oxygen away from the other pretenders. But the Republican right will be in a quandary. Hillary loathing runs deep on the right. They can't decide whether Hillary killed Vince Foster or slept with him, whether Hillary hates the military or not, and whether Hillary is so conniving that she didn't divorce Bill or so weak that she couldn't bring herself to divorce Bill. But the Republican right doesn't have a strong candidate to put up for the Republican nomination in 2008. Frist grows weaker by the day, Brownback is a weirdo who can't fake not being a weirdo, and Santorum wackiness will probably keep him from being re-elected. Besides, it doesn't look like George W.'s legacy of pointless war, soaring deficits, and wacko initiatives on Terry Schiavo and "creation science" will be a big plus. So what will the right wing of the Republican Party do? They could throw their support to John McCain as the "stop Hillary" candidate. If no right-wing candidate gets traction, they may be stuck with McCain anyway. But, in that case, there would essentially be two Democratic candidates for President. Hillary would be the Democrat and McCain would have to govern as a Democrat if he won because House and Senate Republicans would not support him. Having crossed the Republican right so many times, McCain would have to govern with a coalition of Democrats, moderate Republicans, and marginally conservative Republicans who could be bribed with pork barrel projects. In some ways, it would be a grand alliance, but the base of any McCain governing coalition would have to be Congressional Democrats. If the 2008 presidential election is between Hillary Clinton and John McCain, it basically would be a contest between two Democrats.