From The Times of London's Gerard Baker:
I continue to find the ease with which she has sacrificed her principles on everything of importance, the makeover from radical feminist to soft-focused mother and devoted wife, from V-sign-waving peacenik to hawkish warmonger, all a little chilling even for my slightly cynical tastes.
Figuring out who Hillary is --radical or opportunist, all coiled ambition or avenging fury-- is what the next 14 months will be about.
But MSM is fundamentally uninterested in finding out because whatever she is, she isn't a Republican. Hillary gives a wide bearth to anything like an in-depth interview, so discerning the shape of a second Clinton Administration will require close attention to the few clues she provides along the way.
Many in the GOP seem to believe that somehow we will figure out a way to beat her, primarily because of the sort of visceral dislike voiced by Baker. Karl Rove has been talking about her negatives this week, and that sort of talk is like a comforter on a winter's day.
But she will be a disciplined, dedicated campaigner.
Watch this video of Hillary "Walking A Day In The Shoes" of an SEIU member --an RN in Las Vegas, Nevada, Michelle Estrada. I just saw how much goes into keeping track of everything," the candidate comments as she follows Nurse Estrada through a day at the hospital and then to her home for dinner with her three kids. We get to see just how superb a candidate Hillary will be. Every nurse in America will eventually see this clip, and we will hear Hillary referring to her time on the hospital floor as the months go by. It is a signal of the campaign to come, and just how careful Hillary will be to build the organization she hopes will overwhelm her opponent next November.
A tough primary campaign might have softened Hillary up for the general to follow, but it is clear that she is walking away from Barack the Bumbler and the other guy. She's not going to be forced into any mistakes by the pressures of a gebuine primary challenge. Instead, she is going to make a thousand YouTube videos like this one, and ten thousand stops along the campaign trail. The GOP cannot afford a nominee who is anything other than as committed and as hard-working as Senator Clinton.
Which brings me to Senator Thompson's hammock campaign.
Politico's Mike Allen described to me last week the Senator Thompson's plan to run a two-events-and-a-fundraiser-a-day-campaign, the sort of coronation campaign that George W. Bush ran in 1999 and 2000. "A low impact campaign," Allen called it.
Hillary's not running that sort of campaign, and her GOP opponent cannot run one either. Senator Thompson has got to turn up the intensity or turn out the lights. Senator Clkinton isn't going to be beaten because millions of people don't like her. If she loses, it wil be because she was outcampaigned, not outsmarted.