Er Tom Vilsack bare en skinkandidat der skal rydde modstand af vejen for Hillary

"Præsidentkandidat" Tom Vilsack, den afgående guvernør i Iowa, valgte noget overraskende at kaste sig ind i kampen om at blive præsidentkandidat i 2008, men han får svært ved at overbevise kommentatorer og politiske junkies om at han er andet end en afledningsmanøvre for Hillary Clinton. Det er allerede kommet frem at Harkin, der er en af Clinton-parrets store støtter, inden han bekendtgjorde sit kandidatur ringede og koordinerede det med Hillarys stab.

Som den liberale blogger Ron Gunzberger fra politics1.com skriver: "Tom Vilsack's campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President may actually be a tactical blocking maneuver coordinated with and intended to help Hillary Clinton's likely White House bid. His candidacy diminishes Iowa as a key contest state, allowing Clinton to skip the state's famed "retail politics" in favor of big budget media campaigns in larger media market states.".

Det ligeledes liberale magasin Rolling Stone (der nu mest er kendt for sin dækning af musik og kultur, men som ofte har nogle ret informative politiske artikler) skriver: "The point is that Iowa is hard to win. It requires time, and more time, and a degree of face-to-face human warmth and interaction to win. Politically interested people in Iowa expect to shake hands with the person they caucus for. Retail politics is not Hillary’s bag, to put it mildly.

If she can opt out of Iowa that allows her to plow her mass market media dolars into Las Vegas and the rest of Nevada (which is the number two race on the revamped primary schedule). If she takes the Silver State, she could roll into New Hampshire, where geography is already her friend, the prohibitive frontrunner."

Uanset om det er sandt eller ej er det jo den slags rygter der er med til at give folk det indtryk af Hillary at hun som en anden Kansler Palpatine styrer sine små bønder rundt i et magtspil med det eneste formål at tilrane sig præsidentembedet.