Let The '08 Run For The White House Begin

Campaign 2006 is barely a memory, but the presidential election two years from now is already taking canter stage.

Many pundits say it's likely to be one of the most wide open in years.

And, as CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers observed on The Early Show Wednesday, speculation about 2008 is starting with one of Tuesday's winners, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who easily won reelection.

Her victory speech after her successful Senate race had everyone wondering if it was a kickoff for 2008.

With her smiling husband, former president Bill Clinton at her side, Clinton told cheering supporters, "The message couldn't be clearer, that it is time for a new course."

No doubt, Bowers says, the race for president is just getting under way.

"I think you're gonna see a lot more activity. You're going to see announcements, now that the midterms are over," says CBS News political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

Clinton is viewed as the Democratic frontrunner and was the midterm's biggest spender, at nearly $30 million, despite not having a serious challenger, Bowers points out.

Bowers says that may change in 2008, if the man with all the buzz, Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois, jumps into the race.

"I have to step back and see, how can I best keep the momentum, not for me, but for the Democratic party and for the country," is all he's saying now about the prospect of running.

President Clinton's former press secretary, Joe Lockhart, told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Wednesday that he thinks Hillary would be "a strong candidate. I happen to be one of the few who thinks she's being serious when she says she hasn't made up her mind. She had a no-win position, which is, 'You have to win big, or it's terrible.' She won big. She's crossed that hurdle.

"But listen, Barak Obama has done himself a lot of good over the last three or four weeks. There are others. And I tend to believe that Barak Obama being in is good for Hillary Clinton, because no one wants to sit out there as the frontrunner for 14 months with everyone taking shots at you."

Asked by Smith whether Republicans are "licking their chops" at the prospect of facing Hillary in 2008, CBS News political consultant Nicolle Wallace, a one-time communications director in the Bush White House, would only say, "Republicans have done pretty well letting the democratic primary process take care of itself in the last two presidential elections."

As for Obama, Wallace noted that, "Republicans are really watching with a lot of admiration the things that Barak Obama has done. He gave a speech about faith that Republicans are buzzing about. Republicans aren't immune to his charm and appeal."

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the expected frontrunner, Bowers says and, like Obama, he was out on the campaign trail this fall, stumping for candidates and pressing the flesh, while dodging questions about his presidential plans.

Asked by anchor Bob Schieffer in a Sept. 24 edition of the CBS News broadcast Face the Nation whether he would enter all the early '08 primaries, after skipping a few of them the last time around, McCain replied, "That would be a decision to be made after we decide whether to run or not."

But McCain, who had an unsuccessful bid in 2000, may find himself pitted against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had national name recognition and high poll numbers for his handling of Sept. 11, and who was also out on the stump this season.

For his part, Giuliani is saying only, "There's plenty of time for us to debate 2008 and who the best candidate would be."

Rumors surround many other familiar names. Among Democrats: former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Del. Sen. Joe Biden, Ind. Sen. Evan Bayh, N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson, and Conn. Sen. Christopher Dodd. Republican hopefuls may include Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Neb. Sen. Chuck Hagel, and former Georgia Rep. and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Wallace told Smith: "John McCain was, I am told by the folks in charge of the House and Senate races, the No. 1 most-requested surrogate on the campaign trail, followed by Rudy Giuliani. They did a lot of work for their party that probably engendered a lot of good will. I think we know our nominee will be somebody like John McCain or like Mitt Romney, who are perceived as outside this gridlock in Washington, and they both have that going for them, as does Rudy Giuliani."