'08 election gate about to swing wide

The midterm elections of 2006 are a thing of the past. That means that the presidential election campaign of 2008, lasting far too long, and costing ridiculously too much, is about to begin.

Contenders from both major political parties, who have long been coyly holding inquiring reporters at bay, will announce their decisions to set up "exploratory" committees to seriously test the political waters and make their final decisions to run or not run.

The conventional wisdom about the lessons from the 2006 midterm elections is that the voters are tired of combative politics in Washington, that they want cooperation instead of confrontation, and that the Democrats astutely fielded a bunch of moderate members from their party to appeal to the center of American politics, so winning both the House and the Senate in Congress.

President Bush has smoked the political pipe of peace with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and there is talk of bilateralism — except from left-wingers who fear their Democratic party has forsaken its liberal foundations, and right-wingers who fear that Bush has thrust aside the Republican party's true standard of conservatism.

The problem for would-be presidents in this land of such extraordinary diversity is they generally must appeal to their extreme wings — liberal in the case of Democrats, conservative in the case of Republicans — to get their party's nomination, then swing back to the political center to get the nation's votes.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has just won a massive re-election victory to the Senate, has plenty of funds, and can count husband Bill as a plus by her side for Democrats. But with Republicans she still carries an abundance of liberal baggage. She has been trying to shed this by taking more and more centrist positions.

This, however, has opened her to attack from the left. Al Gore, who once seemed to have entered bearded exile from politics after his defeat in 2000 by Bush, is emerging as a potential challenger from the left. Gore loyalists, who say there is little love lost between the Gores and the Clintons, argue that while Hillary Clinton may be able to win her party's nomination, she cannot win the presidency.

Another potential Democratic challenger to Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama, who although newly minted as a senator, has won extraordinary exposure and acclaim. Though skeptics wonder whether someone with such relatively short experience in elected office should run at this time, his proponents argue that 2008 might yet afford him his best shot.