Rumours about 2008 Clinton v Rice

Rumours about 2008 Clinton v Rice

It is three years and 233 days until the next presidential election in the US, and only 50 days into President George W Bush's second term.

But speculation is already reaching a fever pitch about possible presidential candidates in 2008. The list of possible contenders began almost immediately after Mr Bush won last November.

But this frenzy of political prognostication is being driven by an undeniably intriguing scenario - that pits Senator Hillary Clinton against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Although Ms Rice has strained to find new ways of saying she is not interested in a bid, the possible presidential match-up has the chattering classes so prematurely worked up that they are having a hard time letting go.

Ms Rice said she planned to return to academic life. Before she became national security adviser during President Bush's first term, she was provost at Stanford University in California.

Or as she recently said at a State Department press conference: "I'm going to try to be a good secretary of state, and then, as I've said many, many times, there's always NFL (National Football League) commissioner." She is a big fan of American football.

Despite of her repeated denials, several websites, blogs and other grassroots still make great efforts to encourage her to run.

Ms Rice received glowing press after her recent European tour. And US conservatives are looking for a candidate to counter their arch-nemesis: Hillary Clinton. She is also the source of endless speculation about her presidential ambitions.

Ms Rice just laughed and said she had no plans to run, but conservatives are determined never to let another Clinton call the White House home.

On the Republican side, Ms Rice comes in third behind former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Most political experts will say that at this early stage, these polls measure name recognition more than accurate levels of political support.

Ask most Americans who they would vote for in 2008, and they are most likely to look at you in bewilderment and ask: "Didn't we just have an election?"

University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato believes all this early presidential speculation is driven largely by journalists in election withdrawal.

（Agencies)

今天（3月17日）離下一屆美國總統大選還有三年零233天，現任美國總統喬治·布希的第二屆任期剛剛開始了52天。

但關於2008年美國總統大選候選人的推測已經炒得沸沸揚揚。去年11月布希前腳剛剛獲勝，可能參加下一任總統競選的候選人名單緊接著就出爐了。

但是，這種狂熱的政治預言基於一種假設——參議員希拉蕊·柯林頓和國務卿康多莉扎·賴斯展開角逐——這樣的「對抗」無疑很有吸引力。

儘管賴斯盡力尋找新的方式來表明自己對競選沒有興趣，卻總有一幫喋喋不休的人圍繞著未來可能發生的總統爭奪戰轉個不停，他們的情緒過早地被煽動起來，想要平靜下來還需要度過一段艱難的時期。

賴斯說她曾打算回到學術界。在布希第一任期內成為國家安全顧問之前，她擔任過加州史丹福大學的教務長。

或者就像她最近在美國國務院的一次新聞發布會上說過的那樣：「我將努力成為一名出色的國務卿，然後，正如我曾很多次說過的，我一直希望能成為美國國家橄欖球聯盟的主席。」她是橄欖球運動的鐵桿球迷。

儘管她一直否認會參加2008年總統競選，一些網站、博客論壇和其他「草根民眾」仍然大力鼓勵她參選。

最近的歐洲之行歸來以後，賴斯受到了很大的壓力，而且美國的保守派們正在尋找一位候選人來對抗他們的主要勁敵希拉蕊·柯林頓。希拉蕊到底有沒有成為下一任總統的雄心壯志，自然也成了人們無休止的猜測話題。

賴斯只是笑著說自己沒有參加競選的計劃，但保守派成員們已經決定再也不能讓另一個「柯林頓」入主白宮。

在共和黨內部，賴斯的支持率暫居第三，排在前紐約市長魯道夫·朱利安尼和亞利桑那州參議員約翰·麥凱恩之後。

大多數研究政治的專家們會說，現階段所有的民意測驗反映的主要是人物的知名度，而不是準確的政治支持度。

如果你問大多數美國人2008年會投誰的票，他們很可能會困惑地看著你，問道：「我們不是才選舉過一次了嗎？」

維吉尼亞大學政治學系的教授拉裡·薩巴託認為，這些對未來總統人選的提前預測在很大程度上都是還沒戒掉「大選癮」的各路記者煽動起來的。

（中國日報網站譯）