List of '08 prez hopefuls growing. Good.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton declared for the 2008 Presidential Race. I still believe that she can't win the presidency; she's too polarizing of a figure, but I'll certainly support her if she's the nominee.

I found the timing of her announcement to be a bit curious, though. Saturday is typically the slowest news day of the week. I figured she would declare quickly after Barack Obama did last week, but I didn't think she'd pick a Saturday.

But, I can also understand why she chose Saturday, too; since it's a slow news day, she was going to get a lot of play in the news, and she sure did yesterday. How Hillary announced her candidacy, on the Internet, is a sign of the times, too. (I'll comment about the coverage of her announcement in a separate post.)

I don't see how her candidacy is anything but a good thing. How can eight, 10 or even 12 people running for president, on either side of the aisle, be a bad thing for America? It increases our chances of stimulating, informative discussions about a wealth of ideas, and we are in sore need of that.

However, for those of you who are bothered by so many candidates, fear not - the field will get diminish pretty quickly, and it will definitely thin out before the first primaries early next year. Presidential campaigns are extremely expensive, and if candidates have trouble raising money this year, they will quickly drop out of the race.

For financial reasons alone, Hillary wasn't going to waste any time getting into the race after Obama did. Both are high profile candidates who have rock-star recognition and tremendous fundraising abilities, so one wasn't going to let the other get any significant press time or financial advantage.

Hillary has a pretty nice war chest as it is - right now, she's sitting on about $14 million, and that number will grow substantially in the coming weeks. I hate to say it, but until we get significant campaign finance reform with some teeth, money means everything in presidential races. And that gives Hillary another advantage - the Clintons have an fundraising machinery in place that will serve Hillary well in this campaign.

One big name who immediately threw his support behind Obama -- George Soros, the billionaire Democratic philanthropist. Immediately after Obama announced his candidacy, Soros wrote a check for the $2,100 maximum individual contribution for his campaign. (More on Soros in a future post, hopefully later today).

The reason the field in all parties will thin even before the start of the primaries (and even before the end of this year), like I said, is money. Michael Toner, chairman of the Federal Election Commission, has predicted that the '08 race will be "the $1 billion campaign." He also predicts that any serious candidate will "have to have around $100 million in the bank by the end of 2007."

Other declared Democratic hopefuls in the field include Delaware Senator Joe Biden (left) and Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (right). I rate both as long shots, but trying to handicap the race at this point is an exercise in stupidity. I realize it's a big story, but trying to assess who's in the lead right now is meaningless, plain and simple.

One other candidate I really hope enters the race is Al Gore, but more on Gore in a minute, too. At this point, he seems to be the reluctant candidate, but he hasn't 100 percent ruled out a run for the presidency. I wonder if he wouldn't better be served outside of government though, working on raising awareness on the issue that matters to him most, and we all know what that is. If he's gonna declare, he'd better do it relatively soon, though. However, I would guess Hillary's candidacy makes a Gore candidacy less likely.

'07 and '08 are going to be very political years, and I look forward to most of it, but there's a downside to all of this, too -- the coverage (or lack thereof). But, I'd better save that for a separate post, which I'll begin writing in a minute.