Hillary: Bush Is Beatable

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she thought President Bush could be defeated in next year's election and that it was "really important" to prevent him from winning a second term.

Asked whether she thought Bush could be beaten in 2004, Clinton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Yes, absolutely."

"I think it'll be difficult, because [the Republicans] are a very disciplined, polished machine which intimidates opposition," she claimed, while visiting Cleveland on the Midwest leg of her book tour.

Still, "there comes a time when the truth has to count for something," the top Democrat insisted.

The former first lady declined to say which Democrat she thought had the best chance of defeating Bush. "It's up to the process."

At another book signing in Detroit on the same day, she predicted, "I do think one of our candidates will emerge."

"I'm going to do everything that I can to support whoever the nominee is because I think it's really important to try to prevent a second Bush administration," she told the Detroit News.

Last November, Sen. Clinton pointedly declined to endorse her party's then-undisputed presidential front-runner, former Vice President Al Gore. She told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that she never endorsed before the primaries run their course.

Two months earlier, however, she and her husband had endorsed New York gubernatorial hopeful Carl McCall a week before the state's primary vote.

Three weeks after Hillary refused to offer her support for Gore, he dropped out of the race.

Clinton told Matthews that she wouldn't endorse a presidential candidate until the spring of 2004. "I think we'll have our nominee by March."

The former first lady later told reporters that she had no plans to endorse any candidate until the Democrat convention in July.

Although Sen. Clinton has repeatedly insisted she has "no intention" of running in 2004, a presidential survey conducted two weeks ago by Quinnipiac University found that 48 percent of Democrats now support her for president - more than all the other announced Democrat candidates combined.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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