Dull Hillary stumbles and the memory of Bill lingers on

In a weighty speech to journalists at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, the senator squandered an opportunity to shine before a critically important audience – the journalists who will present her to the public if, as expected, she declares her candidacy for the 2008 nomination.

It began well enough. Resplendent in a lemon yellow two-piece and expensively bejewelled, her star power was plain the moment she entered the room. Everywhere, necks craned for a sight of the immaculately coiffured New York senator. But then she lost it. The half-hour speech was achingly dull, a meandering lecture on energy policy which left the audience stifling yawns.

Quality, or the lack thereof, tells in the end. Ultimately the Clintons are a real world manifestation of the Snopes clan found in William Faulkner’s mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.