A "gift" indeed. They WANT her to get the nomination.

Exactly, monkey. The more the right-wing attack machine attacks Hillary:
A. The more attention she gets that other Democratic candidates don't.
B. The more rallying to defend Democrats comes to mean rallying to defend Hillary.
C. The less space there is for Democrats to actually talk about issues.

I'm sure Hillary's campaign is grateful for the attention. In her own words: "For 15 years, I have stood up against the Right Wing machine, and I've come out stronger, so if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."

The fact that WH pays any attention to HC makes me hate both them and her even more. I'd much prefer they pretended she didn't exist, because then everyone else might, too.

They must know that by giving her this attention they are helping her. They can't be that dumb. Which means they would prefer her over any other Dem candidate. Which means I would prefer anyone over her.

Either that or they think she is a weak contender and are pumping her up for the nom thinking the GOP nom can beat her handily. But that thought doesn't make me like her more.

I'd have to agree, this is Rove's work.

Remember, Gore/Obama 08 - the only choice.

I have no doubt that the Republicans want Hillary to be the Democratic nominee. I'm just not sure why. They have to realize that, no matter how high her negatives are, she would make a formidable candidate. More formidable than Obama or Edwards? That's debatable. But that's just my point. To say that Hillary would make a worse candidate than the other two is not an easy point to make.

I halfway believe that part of this is that, if a Democrat is going to occupy the White House, Hillary's the one they would most want to see there. In a way, she would represent the best of both worlds for a Republican opposition. On the one hand, her policies wouldn't be all that threatening. You'll get a Democrat who doesn't really believe in the political viability of Democratic policies and who'll be in constant re-election mode, so she won't be a threat to accomplish much. On the other hand, she's easily demonized.

@5 - true. Let's face it, all the current Dem candidates have a 20 point spread on all the Republic candidates.