Hillary Fritters Away Her Advantage

Hillary Clinton was a shoe-in for reelection in New York. She probably could secured a comfortable victory for 10% of what she spent. Instead, she apparently decided to go for a landslide and in the process severely depleted her campaign funds (from Political Wire):

"She had only token opposition, but Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) still spent more on her re-election -- upward of $30 million -- than any other candidate for Senate this year, reports the New York Times.

"What had been one of the most formidable war chests in politics was depleted to a level that leaves Mrs. Clinton with little financial advantage over her potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- and perhaps even trailing some of them."

Clinton is "now in the same ballpark as two fellow Democrats," Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), "who had $13.8 million in his account as of Sept. 30, according to election commission records, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), "who had $10.6 million."

There are a couple of possibilities here: Either Clinton completely mismanaged her funds in the effort to win big, or she figures that she will be able to easily replace her funds because of her attraction among Dems. I think there's a little of both going on here, and if she's counting on being coronated by the Dems, she may be overestimating her potential. Granted, the press has already made her the nominee, but there are some formidable Dem opponents who may have something to say about that.

Hillary could easily suffer from Howard Dean disease and be the solid front-runner...until the first primary when the voters get cold feet.