'Draft Hillary': attempt to push Obama aside looks serious

HILLARY CLINTON for president? It is the clearest sign yet of desperation setting in among the smarter subset of politically-conscious Americans that a 'Draft Hillary' campaign has been launched in hopes of persuading the female half of Bill-and-Hill to make one last shot at the White House next year.

Washington's establishment is steaming confidently towards the iceberg with a ship of fools for the Republican nomination merrily aboard, and as of yesterday, even has-been Sarah Palin is again coyly teasing Fox News that she may yet declare a candidacy.
 
On the bridge, meanwhile, President Obama doffs his cap and regardless of the consequences says "aye-aye" to orders from the First Class lounge where the band plays on.

It is a bit late in the game – Iowa launches the primary season for next year's election with its caucuses on 3 January – but there is every sign that the attempt to shunt Barack Obama aside for the woman he defeated for the Democratic nomination four years ago is serious.

'Draft Hillary' surfaced with a 'robocall' telephone campaign launched this week, targeting women with a record of supporting Hillary with money or votes or both.

I was surprised to pick up the telephone in my girlfriend's Manhattan flat and hear this message:

"Hello, this is a message from RunHillary2012.net. America would be better off today if Hillary Clinton was our president. The Wall Street robber barons would be jailed. Young people could afford college and find jobs, and six million homeowners wouldn't face foreclosure. We need to change course. Please sign our petition to draft Hillary Clinton for President…"

For once, I did not slam down the phone. There are no figures yet on how many have responded, but I will wager that hundreds of thousands listened, and wished they had heeded those who always warned that the cynical team of Bill and Hillary Clinton, inoculated against the poison of the "vast right wing conspiracy" of today's Republican party, had a better chance of rescuing America than the flaccid Obama, bought-up years ago by Wall Street and the notorious Chicago political machine.

The campaign is now running on Twitter and on Facebook. Forbes magazine seems to have been the first mainstream print publication to have picked up the story.

The 'Draft Hillary' petition is collecting signatures to be sent to the Democratic National Committee, which officially nominates the candidate even if he is the sitting president. It has been launched by Steve Rosinski, who worked for the Clinton-Core campaign back in the glory days, and offers public contact via Rosinski's e-mail.

He is supported by two Democratic pollsters, Pat Caddell and Douglas Schoen, who argued in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that "Obama should stand down and let Secretary of State Hillary Clinton run in 2012".

They followed that up on the web journal Politico: "We are now calling on Democratic voters nationally… to organise a write-in campaign for Clinton."

Will Hillary answer the call? She has repeatedly said that her turn as Secretary of State will be her swansong, and Bill has repeatedly supported that. She is expected to retire at the end of Obama's first term, whether he wins a second or not.

But the idea of her quitting if there is any real chance of a Billary return to the Oval Office is nonsense. If the race looks winnable, she will run as surely as the sun comes up. ·