The rise and rise of Saint Hillary

Clinton’s march to the White House in 2008 is gathering pace, says charles laurence

Hillary Clinton, candidate for re-election as senator from New York, has taken to wearing a bejeweled cross around her neck. With the November 7 mid-term elections coming up, she is sending a signal that's calculated - as is everything she does these days - to help win the White House in 2008.

A second term in the Senate is a foregone conclusion and so she has devoted most of her campaign time and funds to supporting other candidates in closer-run contests. Democrats expect to win at least 15 seats to take back the lower house of Congress, and with Bush and his Republicans on Capitol Hill plunging in the polls, they have a chance of

winning the six seats they need to take the Senate too.

Hillary's cross is telling Bush's "base" - the Religious Right - that it is OK to come over to her.

It is amazing how fast the wind can change: the pious horde that has kept Bush in power is fed-up. A White House staffer in Dubya's "faith-based initiative" office has just revealed that Christians are "laughed at" behind their backs in the corridors of power, while 21 per cent of "white church-goers" have abandoned the Republicans since the scandal of the congressman (Mark Foley) and the pageboy.

God and family values are