'Today': Inspirational Hillary the Next RFK

This week is shaping up as the MSM's kick-off of its Hillary for President campaign. Using Time Magazine's 10th cover of Hillary as a springboard, this morning's Today show convened a liberal coffee klatsch on Clinton's political future. Dem pollster Peter Hart summed up the segment's zeitgest nicely: "I think Americans are ready for a female president. I think they are definitely ready for Hillary Clinton."

Not a discouraging word was to be heard, as 'Today' found it unnecessary to invite to the party anyone who might have a negative view of Hillary and her prospects. In addition to Hart, we were treated to a clip from liberal WaPo columnist E.J. Dionne, who suggested that Hillary's campaign strategy would be similar to the one Bill successfully employed: "hold onto a certain number of liberals and win a chunk of the center."

Declared NBC reporter Lisa Daniels, who narrated the segment: "Americans are beginning to soften their feelings for the junior senator from New York." She cited in support a poll Time apparently commissioned for purposes of its cover story that found that 53% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Hillary, more than for any of her potential challengers for the Dem presidential nomination.

Daniels painted a picture of Clinton as undecided as to her presidential ambitions. While embracing Hart's view that Americans are ready for Hillary, Daniels proclaimed that "the $64,000 question" is "whether Hillary herself is ready?" Time editor Richard Stengel informed us that after winning her Senate race, "she's going to sit down with her advisors and decide what to do." Does anyone doubt that Hillary is aching to run? But the MSM propagates her official line that she is focused on the Senate and won't even think about other things till later. Right.

The stuff really started to get deep when Hart, managing to maintain a serious mien, proclaimed toward the segment's end: "Hillary Clinton, in terms of a vision of where America can be, can inspire people in much the same way that Robert Kennedy did forty years ago."

Room for one more at Rushmore?

Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY, where he hosts 'Right Angle,' the award-winning public-access TV show. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net