She's in

Hillary Clinton's Web campaign launch gave new-media sex appeal to her trademark amiable caution. But will the money and star power behind her history-making presidential bid translate into passion among voters?

By Walter Shapiro

Read more: Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Walter Shapiro, Jeb Bush, Opinion, John Kerry, Sam Brownback, Barack Obama, 2008 election, Chris Dodd

Illustration: Zach Trenholm

 

Jan. 21, 2007 | The exasperating coyness is over at last. Gone are the days when Hillary Clinton would robotically respond to questions about running for president by claiming, "I am not thinking about it at all."

There was no ambiguity to the video -- shot this week at her home in Washington and released Saturday morning on her Web site -- announcing the formation of an exploratory presidential campaign committee. "I'm not just starting a campaign, though, I'm beginning a conversation with you, with America," she said, sitting on her sofa in a red jacket with framed pictures of Bill Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, visible on a side table. On the Web site, the video was headlined, "I'm In," and her fledgling campaign announced plans for her initial foray into Iowa, the site of the opening-gun 2008 caucuses, next weekend.

Clinton's announcement continued the tradition of amiable caution that has characterized her public persona since the collapse of her overly ambitious healthcare plan in 1994. While the New York senator has already moved away from her previous support of the Iraq war, all she said in the video was, "Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in Iraq and to restore respect for America around the world." (That sentence was so open-ended and vague that even Dick Cheney might endorse it.) She also reflected scaled-down Democratic expectations when she said somewhat tentatively, "Let's definitely talk about how every American can have quality, affordable healthcare."

The question overhanging her entire campaign is whether the former first lady will be offering the voters something fresh or merely a Clinton Restoration. If Hillary triumphs in 2008, it will mean that just two families will have monopolized the White House for 24 years, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush still waiting in the wings. There was no mention of her husband in Mrs. Clinton's announcement video, though she did invoke one of his trademark lines from 1992 when she declared, "Our basic bargain [is] that no matter who you are or where you live, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can build a good life."

Just to cap a history-making week that began with Barack Obama's announcing his candidacy virtually, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who boasts Hispanic heritage, will be trumpeting his own exploratory campaign when he appears on ABC's "This Week" Sunday morning. Never before has a presidential field displayed this much diversity among its serious candidates -- with Clinton, Obama and Richardson offering a rainbow coalition all by themselves. (The rest of the announced Democratic field is from the standard white male political demographic: John Edwards, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich.)

For the most part, at least in the early going, the Democratic race will be treated by the press as a Barack-Hillary face-off with Edwards hovering at the edge of the picture. What these three frontrunners share is their comparative inexperience, at least by traditional measures. Clinton, Obama and Edwards have collectively served a total of just 14 years in national elective office. This runs counter to the conventional wisdom after Sept. 11, which predicted that long résumés would now be a prerequisite for the Oval Office. The question, of course, is whether the legacy of George W. Bush (six years as Texas governor and minimal foreign-policy experience) has so lowered the bar for the presidency that virtually anyone who reads a newspaper seems well versed in comparison.

So much is happening so soon in Democratic presidential politics that it is challenging to sort out all the implications. Just four years ago, Howard Dean had not yet pioneered the fundraising and community-building potential of the Internet. Now it seems almost routine for candidates to declare with online videos and to solicit expressions of support on their Web sites. (The Clinton campaign ballyhooed in a press release that 10,000 supporters had signed up by late afternoon Saturday, but it is hard to determine whether that should be regarded as a particularly impressive number given the expectations swirling around Hillary.)

"Traditionally, these candidate announcements have been set speeches in huge halls with lots of American flags," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network. "But this is how technology is changing the way that politics is played." In contrast, the Republicans are still cleaving to the traditional rituals of politics. Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, dressed in a suit and a white shirt, announced his candidacy Saturday at an old-fashioned rally of supporters in his hometown of Topeka.

What also makes the 2008 Democratic contest unique is the unprecedented amount of money that will be lavished on the voters. "I'm pretty confident that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can each raise more than $50 million," said Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf, who was deputy campaign manager for John Kerry in 2004. Others conjure up mind-boggling notions like Clinton raising more than $100 million for the presidential primaries. By way of comparison, Dean raked in $53 million in 2004, and Kerry wrapped up the nomination while spending considerably less.

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