7.21.2007 | Hope springs eternal

...for the black widow spider from Hope, Arkansas, now a carpetbagging senator from New York: The Hillary. The latest poll conducted by Fox (which I trust much more than any conducted or even touched by the New York Times or CBS News) shows what many would interpret as the inevitability of Hillary as our next president.

In brief, she's in the lead over Obamarama, 39-23 percent, with a 3 percent margin of error. But wait, shrieks the Hillary Infomercial, there's more! Two salients should be noted. The first is that Hill and Obama are much closer when the question is, "Which Democratic candidate would be your second choice?"

This is a pretty good indicator of who has deeper appeal within the Donks, and when one adds first and second choices, the difference between these two shrinks to within striking range of the margin of error: 56 percent for Hillary, 51 percent for Obama.

Translation: it's a horse race. But there is one small detail in this poll that could be telling, and may be the salvation of whoever the Elephants run: Hillary's high negatives. This is reflected by the poll's question, "Is there one candidate you would never vote for under any circumstances?"

Answer for Hillary: 29 percent. The next highest is Rudy Giuliani, with a mere 8 percent. This, and this alone, is what may sink the Donks. Oh, the party elders, still wearing their beads and smoking their bongs, still protesting the Vietnam war over the millions of skulls from the killing fields of communist Southeast Asia, will go with Hillary (Dominoes? We don't want your stinkin' geopolitical theory...)

It's the politically correct thing to do, and Obama may be half-black, but hey, he hasn't paid his dues. Even the Donks have some sense of propriety.