Can Hillary Join the Club?

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To date, Clinton has raised $33 million for her re-election and has more than $17 million in the bank, a figure she can easily double this year. She had two fund raisers in New York last week, and she is set to attend events in Dallas and St. Louis, Mo., in the next two weeks. More than 75 party fund raisers gathered at a Washington hotel last month so that Clinton's inner circle could brief them on the New York race, her probable opponents, the G.O.P.'s history of using every weapon and tactic against her and the plans for raising money through personal appearances and on the Internet. Participants reported that each presentation was focused on 2006, and organizers underlined their short-term focus. The day was capped by a dinner party at a Georgetown mansion where Clinton spoke after her husband introduced her.

Some of the moneymen who attended the D.C. sessions, however, remain loyal to other probable '08 contenders. Several who spoke to TIME said that while they are happy to help Clinton in 2006, they are leery of a presidential bid. A few cited the Senator's high unfavorable ratings in national polls, ratings that have held for some time now above 40%. One fund raiser who asked not to be identified put it this way: "The concern in the community is how do you put together a national campaign with numbers like that?" Clinton's ratings are especially daunting given that the front runner among Republican '08 contenders seems to be Arizona Senator John McCain, who enjoys considerable popularity with the public. It is clear that Clinton's people are thinking about him a lot.

The other man Clinton has to watch out for is her husband. The Senator and the former President got crossways a few weeks ago on the Dubai Ports deal when it turned out that he was informally having conversations with United Arab Emirates representatives about how to cope with opposition in Washington at the same time she was helping get that opposition organized. No one who knows either Clinton has any idea how to bring a man renowned for his voracious need for information into anything approaching the marginal role of political spouse. How--or even whether--to integrate into her tight circle of advisers the former President's vast network of allies, strategists, hangers-on and second-guessers is a task no one has begun to contemplate. And even the Senator can sound a little sensitive about the Clinton presidency at times: when talking with Lott last week on CNN about how FEMA was better organized and led during her husband's Administration, she referred to the period simply as "the '90s."

Already, there are signs that Hillary's attitude about economic policy is slightly different from the ex-President's. While her husband was an ardent free trader who talked with guarded optimism about the global economy, Hillary voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement last June and has spent a lot of time meeting with economists and other experts to develop strategies for retaining the U.S.'s dwindling manufacturing base, in part because it forms the economic base of upstate New York.