Rove: "(Hillary) is the dominant player on their side of the slate"



(image via yale)

Senator Hillary Clinton is front-and-center on Karl Rove's radar for 2008. According to Drudgie-Poo:

"President Bush and his top strategist, Karl Rove, say Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be tough to beat in the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008 -- but not in the general election!

"Reporter Bill Sammon, who joins the WASHINGTON EXAMINER as Senior White House Correspondent, is set to launch his new book, STRATEGERY. In the Book, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, Rove is quoted on the-record and is unleashed on Hillary: ... Rove added that the 'hard-driving' Clinton will easily vanquish Democratic primary rivals like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely 'preening for the vice presidential slot.'

�'I think Hillary Clinton will be a formidable candidate,' Bush said. 'And I don�t know the inner workings of the Democrat primary that much, but she will be a formidable candidate in the Democrat primary, is what I meant.'

"... Rove agreed in a question-and-answer session in his West Wing office for STRATEGERY, which is based on exclusive, lengthy interviews with Bush, Cheney and their top advisers. The third in a series of NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers chronicling this unlikely yet historic presidency, STRATEGERY is the most comprehensive, behind-the-scenes account of Bush�s narrow reelection and the tumultuous 14 months that followed. 'She is the dominant player on their side of the slate,' Rove said of Clinton. 'Anybody who thinks that she�s not going to be the candidate is kidding themselves.'"

Perhaps we are kidding ourselves, but we still believe Al Gore will enter the race, position himself leftward, and win the Democratic Primary in 2008. The interview with Rove, though, was probably before his fiery Martin Luther King Day speech in New Hampshire, and, proximate to that, the subsequent lovefest at Sundance. Events change rapidly on the political scene and we cannot believe that Rove could miss the Gore-as-Environmentalist trial balloons floating all about the DC atmosphere.

More here.