As you may already know, the "Hillary for President" movement has always come from the ranks of the conservative media. No one else seriously discusses the possibility in 2004—including Herself. To wit, this item from today's Slate.com.
One might also mention any of several recent columns by veteran Hillary-phobe Bill Safire keeping the rumor alive, positing a Clintonista scheme of superhuman cunning and treachery worthy of the Illuminati to secretly advance her career by obviously appearing not to.
You know, this spittle-flecked hatred the conservatives continue to display for All Things Hillary--especially in the face of her fairly tame career as a junior Senator--is too much. It's just too overplayed.
And really, the search for complex and subtle factors that could cause the conservative media (almost a needlessly modified noun, Air America and Salon.com notwithstanding) to become Ground Zero for the "Hillary for President" movement might blind us to what is perhaps the simplest explanation.
In a single sentence: The conservatives have a crush on Hillary, with all the prepubescent fascination, arousal, fear, and embarrassment that entails. If we were all in the third grade, Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh and the other little pasty-faced dweebs in the AV Club would be dunking Hillary's pigtails in the inkwell right now. There's no simpler way to put it: The conservatives "like" Hillary!
"Do not!"
"Do so!"
"Do not!"
"Tucker and Hillary, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
And such is the state of play in American political discourse, circa May 2004.
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