Not just two women, but two mega-stars – two women who are both loved and loathed with electric passion. Republicans love Rice because her very existence confirms their view of America as a perfectly meritocratic land of opportunity (and also, judging from the Web sites, because some think she’s, ahem, hot). Democrats loathe her for misleading us into war and being President Bush’s football-watching buddy. They love Clinton for being their kind of superwoman – loyal but independent wife, loving mother, faithfully liberal senator – and promising the Clinton Restoration. Republicans loathe her because she would bring her husband back to the White House, even if his new duties were confined to curtains and china patterns. (Eugene Robinson, A Race to Dream About, washingtonpost.com, March 15, 2005)

Is America ready for a woman president? Yes, if you go by what the political pundits are saying. To top it, the conservatives may overwhelmingly vote a black woman into the White House in 2008. That black woman is Dr. Condaleeza Rice. It seems times have changed together with the patent historical prejudices. The red-neck, chauvinistic white males are willing to accept a black woman candidate for the 2008 presidency. This trend is triggered by Senator Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton is a politically shrewd tough cookie. She reined in her ambitions and restrained herself from the 2004 presidential election race because she had correctly figured out that time was not ripe for her yet. It was still too early for her to run for the White House after her husband’s scandalous, tumultuous, and openly debauched second term as president. Although Bill Clinton had won the impeachment battle, the impeachment in itself was not a plus for Hillary.

Secondly, she knew there was no way that she could manipulate Iraq for the Democratic Party although the war was not going in favor of the incumbent president. The U.S. was entangled in Iraq in such a way that she couldn’t capitalize on it. Even though she and her party hated the Iraq war and the Republican administration that had taken America into war by deceit, she couldn’t publicly state that America should cut its losses and retreat. That would be a political death.

In 2008, the Democratic Party doesn’t seem to have a viable candidate other than Hillary. The other likely candidates are either losers like John Kerry, his running mate John Edwards, and Al-Gore or infantile and volatile Howard Dean. Al-Gore has already announced himself out of any race in future. In an interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez (October 13, 2005), Dick Morris, Bill Clinton’s political advisor for 20 years, asserted, “Hillary is currently getting 44 percent vote in the Fox News poll of Democracy (Democratic Party’s?) primary voters. Her nearest rivals are Kerry at 12 percent, Edwards at 12 percent, Gore at 7 percent, and Biden at 4. Sometimes one thinks that as candidates get known that they will move up, but, as all four of her opponents have already run for president and lost, they won’t. The nomination is Hillary’s.”

What choices do the Republicans have to stop Hillary Clinton in her tracks? According to Morris, “..in 2008, no ordinary white male Republican candidate will do: Frist, Pataki, and George Allen…can’t win (Bill Frist is already embroiled in trouble; he has been indicted for some shady business in stocks); Giuliani and McCain are too far to the left to be nominated; Jeb Bush and Dick Cheney have too much baggage; and the foreign-born Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t run. That leaves only Condi Rice, making it certain that the first female president will be sworn in on January 20, 2009 – and making 2008 the election of the century.” Dick Morris has written a book on this topic which he called “Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.” His wife Eileen McGann is the co-author.

America was not ready for a male black president, General Colin Powell, who was being propped for a race against Bill Clinton in his second term election, by his well-wishers. Even though he had the right credentials to challenge Bill Clinton, the white conservatives wouldn’t vote for a black president. As the rumors of the possibility of him running for the high office began coming out, he started receiving hate mail and threats to his life. He wisely, on the advice of his wife, stayed away. Now it seems the Republican voters are willing to seriously consider the presidency of a black female in 2008, which, not only, can challenge Hillary but may also win the race. Many of them will vote for her not necessarily because they genuinely love her but because their hatred for Hillary and her husband knows no bounds and exceeds their love for Condi.

In his book, Dick Morris wrote, “There is one, and only one, figure in America who can stop Hillary Clinton: Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice.”

According to a review of Condi vs. Hillary (http://www.sacunion.com/pages/columns/articles/2469/), October 15, “John Kerry got 54 percent of his vote from three groups that, together, account for about a third of the American electorate: African-Americans, Hispanics and single white women. Rice would cut deeply into any Democrat’s margin among these three groups and most especially deny Clinton the strong support she would otherwise receive from each of them.”

Among some of the essential weaknesses that Hillary has according to Dick Morris and his wife (quoted by Corky Siemaszko in New York Daily News, October 11, 2005), are the following:

• Hillary has a sense of entitlement that leaves her vulnerable to the temptations of financial misconduct.
• Clinton is not just “untested” by crisis, but the former First Lady is a crybaby who often ‘succumbs to tears in times of adversity.’
• Hillary has been embroiled in scandal after scandal, ever since she entered public life…In stark contrast, Condi’s past is without blemish.

Although in a survey of 1,000 adults conducted on January 29-30, 2005, Hillary Clinton led Condaleeza Rice 47% to 40%, for the 2008 presidential election, the political fortunes can change as the race begins. The elections will be like a contest of the two rock stars.