Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Local Democratic Chief gets national attention, doubts HRC in 2008

Nora Walcott, the outgoing executive director for Greene County dems, turned up in a national piece on Hillary Clinton on this morning's "Good Morning America."

Clinton will be officially announcing her candidacy for re-election to the U.S. Senate this week. The ABC story used a video that Clinton released as a jumping off point for how she plans to position herself not just for November but the seemingly inevitable run for the White House in 2008.

Walcott gave voice to what many Democrats won't say publicly: that Hillary won't convert red states to blue. Walcott caught ABC's eye after the New Yorker quoted her making similar remarks when Virginia's Mark Warner rallied Greene County Democrats in April.

Walcott held her own adjacent to comments from former Gore-Lieberman manager Donna Brazile. Brazile likened upstate New York voters to Midwest voters, implying that if Clinton can win over those voters, she can convince the rest of the country as well.

We checked it out -- of New York's 57 counties outside NYC, 37 went Bush/Cheney in 2004. Throw out the Big Apple's neighboring Nassau and Westchester counties, and Bush loses by less than 47,000 votes.

We're glad to see the network taking notice of Middle America.

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