2008 Quick Hits

• Hillary Clinton pulled a Kerry/Edwards move yesterday on "Today", saying that, concerning her Senate vote for the Iraq war - "Obviously, if we knew then what we know now, there wouldn't have been a vote," she said in her usual refrain before adding, "and I certainly wouldn't have voted that way". "However, the former first lady denies her vote was a mistake; in part to maintain her centrist image". - A poor imitation of Kerry's "voted for it before I voted against it" schtick. Excepy H is the other way around. She voted against the war before she voted for it. Is she really that desperate to please the anti-war left and moderate DLC types in the Democratic party? She must realize that, no matter what she attempts to do, she'll never be a Howard Deanesque figure to left-wingers.

• Rudy Giuliani, now officially the top GOP contender for 2008, launched his first campaign website yesterday. joinrudy2008.com is no more than Rudy propaganda (The site has pages with such titles as "The Crime Fighter". No mention of sleazy personal issues or gay marriage) with a credit card machine attached, but it's still put together much more professionally than John McCain's uber-tacky exploremccain.com site which is literally an online credit card machine. With the Join Rudy launch Giuliani is clearly organizing his campaign with an eye towards finality in preparation for his official '08 announcement.

• More '08 campaigning going on today in Iowa, with GOPer Mitt Romney attending several GOP events in the Cornhusker State. Mitt is no doubt enjoying the Rudy-bashing WaPo article from yesterday. With McCain disorganized and Rudy too "liberal", Romney is apparently WaPo's pick for the nomination. - Meanwhile, Dem contender Tom Vilsack gave a plush AFLAC duck to Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show". A must-read article...