Wash Post Dubs Hillary a 'Shadow Candidate'

Hillary Clinton is running for president.

That's the verdict of the Washington Post, a newspaper that could hardly be described as an organ of Hillary's "vast right-wing conspiracy."

"In recent days a half-dozen leading Democrats have delivered major speeches on foreign policy," notes the Post on its Thursday editorial page.

"Mostly, they follow a similar track. Presidential candidates Howard Dean, John Edwards, John F. Kerry, Joseph I. Lieberman and Wesley K. Clark and shadow candidate Hillary Clinton accept many of the goals of the Bush administration but diverge sharply on the means to achieve them."

A few lines later the Post laments that Howard Dean's protectionist trade policy is "shared by every Democratic candidate except Mr. Lieberman (and Ms. Clinton)."

Though we don't often agree with the paper conservatives have dubbed "Pravda on the Potomac," this time the Post has it 100 percent right.

When it comes to this year's crop of presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton is walking, talking and acting like a duck.

She refuses to step away from the political spotlight, takes every opportunity to bash President Bush and even has her minions, like former top White House aides Harold Ickes and Leon Panetta, trash her party's presidential front-runner, Howard Dean, in published interviews.

Then there's her appearance on "Meet the Press" 10 days ago, where she left the door on a 2004 run, if not wide open, decidedly more than slightly ajar.

If she truly is running, skeptics ask, then why won't she make an official announcement?

Why should she? Mrs. Clinton already has everything a presidential front-runner needs. She's the No. 1 choice of Democrats from coast to coast, she has more name recognition than the entire Democratic field put together, and she and her husband are the top fund-raising draws of their party.

Add to that the fact that Hillary has acquired all this without doing a lick of official campaigning, not to mention having to answer all of those pesky media questions announced candidates tend to get asked.

If President Bush looks strong next spring as convention time draws near, Mrs. Clinton can beg off with the simple excuse, "See, I told you I wasn't going to run."

If, however, the president looks vulnerable, Democrats demoralized by the prospect of following Howard Dean over the cliff will welcome Hillary as their standard-bearer with open arms.

Editor's note:
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2004 Elections
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