Hell hath no fury like a political strategist scorned. And while Bill Clinton kept rehiring the Machiavellian Dick Morris every time he got into trouble, Hillary loathed the man she calls privately "the little creep." The antipathy is mutual and now Morris is determined to disrupt her campaign. He and Dave Bossie, one of the key figures in what Hillary called "the vast, right-wing conspiracy" to undermine her husband's presidency, are working together to produce a film that Morris says "will show her up for the phoney she is." He unveiled this news at a private breakfast with staff and guests of the American Spectator, one of the main vehicles of the anti-Clinton alliance of the 1990s. In Hillary—the Movie, Morris plans to portray her as a Democratic Nixon, combining a left-wing agenda with a ruthless use of presidential powers against her enemies.
The Republicans don't impress much
Morris told the Spectator crowd that with Hillary's huge fundraising lead and her husband's campaign skills, nothing short of a massive anti-Hillary campaign can stop her now. The country is "dying to elect a Democrat," and the Republicans will be unable to match their 2004 turnout. By contrast, Morris says Hillary will bring in millions of first-time voters, mostly single women who now make up 27 per cent of the electorate (but only 24 per cent of 2004 voters). Morris reckons that Barack Obama will end up as Hillary's running mate, and that the Republicans have no credible candidate to stop them. This may come as news to admirers of Rudy Giuliani, John McCain or Mitt Romney, but it is a strikingly common view among conservatives, whose top talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh grumbles: "There's nobody out there that revs me up." That was also the consensus at the annual reunion of Reagan administration veterans at the Heritage Foundation in January, where the uncrowned queen of the right Phyllis Schlafly said none of the top three Republican candidates could be trusted on "limiting court jurisdiction, the loss of US jobs from globalism and the immigration-amnesty-guest-worker, pro-life and same-sex marriage issues." Former House leader Dick Armey quipped "When I look at these top three guys, I think of Shania Twain singing 'That don't impress me much.'"
Obama's Facebook revolution
Morris may be wrong about Obama settling for the no 2 slot on Hillary's ticket. Obama has a secret weapon—the surge of volunteers and support that has poured in over the internet, without his doing anything to encourage it. Call it the Facebook revolution, after facebook.com, the website where students post profiles, arrange dates and hold virtual meetings. Last summer, long before there was an Obama campaign, a "draft Obama" site was launched on Facebook. It now has almost 60,000 members. A similar site, "One Million Strong for Obama," started this January and claims 200,000 members.
Obama's momentum, fundraising and choice of staff all say he is going for the top job. The best example is Emily's List, which has been for years the top fundraising and campaign operation for women candidates. Hillary assumed she owned it, particularly after Emily's List director Ellen Malcolm endorsed her. But Eureka Gilkey, the most prominent black woman in Emily's List (and its national training director) has been lured away to become Obama's deputy political director. And there's a strong buzz that Al Gore's old campaign boss Donna Brazile is ready to join Obama, as soon as Gore confirms he won't be running.
Al Gore, wild card?
But there's the rub. Al's decision is on hold until the Oscars, when he seems a shoo-in for the documentary award for his global warming film An Inconvenient Truth—probably the finest pulpit any presidential contender could hope for. He may, though, have an even better one in December, if the Norwegians who proposed Gore for this year's Nobel peace prize have their way. Gore also has a new book coming in May, The Assault on Reason. The blurb says it describes how "the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason." Gore's backers are already at work, and held a meeting in Boston in early February to explore the possibility of a late entry into the crowded Democratic field. As a director of Apple and a senior adviser to Google, Gore would have no problem raising the minimum $100m required for a credible run. But the most likely scenario is as follows. The Democratic party convention in Denver in September 2008 is hopelessly deadlocked: Hillary and Obama have 35 per cent of the delegates each, and John Edwards has 30 per cent. Since 16 of the states plan to hold their primaries (and thus lock up delegates) by 5th February next year, and since the Democrats (unlike the winner-take-all Republicans) apportion delegates by each candidate's percentage vote, such a deadlocked convention is all too possible. Then the party will turn to Gore as its saviour.
