Hillary Still No. 1 With Dems

A month's worth of relatively unobstructed media attention to the field of Democratic Party presidential hopefuls has done nothing to dampen rank-and-file enthusiasm for a 2004 presidential run by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed that 43 percent of her party now backs the former first lady. In fact, Sen. Clinton garnered more support than Howard Dean [7 percent], Gen. Clark [10 percent], Joe Lieberman [8 percent], John Kerry [7 percent] and Dick Gephardt [8 percent] combined.

While Clinton has dramatically lowered her profile in the wake of her summer book tour, the political headlines over the last month have focused on the unsteady debut of sometimes front-runner Gen. Wesley Clark and challenges from the other eight candidates to the Howard Dean juggernaut.

But even as the media focused elsewhere, Democrats remained loyal to Hillary - despite a new round of denials that she has any intention of running. Some political experts even say it's already too late for her to get into the race.

The Democratic field, however, won't be able to count on Hillary staying out of the spotlight for long. The presidential favorite is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at next month's Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Iowa, home to 2004's first major presidential event, the Iowa caucuses.

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