Clinton's Timing Signals She's Ready for Battle

Jan. 20, 2007 — -- The bold decision by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to launch her presidential campaign days before President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday is the kind of aggressive move that she has normally shied way from during her political career.

Clinton, the clear frontrunner for her party's 2008 presidential nomination, has lost some of the spotlight of late to two other strong recent entrants into the race -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

Clinton's aides have for months been planning to carefully roll out her formation of a campaign committee that will allow her to raise money and begin to formally hire staff for what will be an historic effort to try and elect a former first lady of the United States as the country's first female president.

Normally, presidential candidates look to put out word of their presidential campaigns during a time when they will not have to compete with other major political or world events.

But Clinton's political power is so massive and distinctive that she is, in effect, challenging Bush at the time when he is seeking to refocus on the nation's attention on the last two years of his presidency and his agenda. No other major candidate would likely try such a move.

Now, with Clinton's bid expected to dominate television, newspaper, and Internet coverage straight through Tuesday's speech, the New York senator will likely be cast as the chief Democratic critic of the incumbent president, crowding out the other Democrats who would like to replace him.

That will surely be a heartening image to some of Clinton's critics on the left, who have cast her as too accommodating and unwilling to take on the Republicans.

At the same time, the aggressive nature of the move could pacify those within her party who have concerns that Clinton is too passive in her political instincts. Some of these same Democrats have also been pleased that in recent days Clinton has stepped up her criticism of the Bush policy on the Iraq war.