Warning: Hillary Can Win the Presidency

A new report from a top financial services company has a
warning for those who dismiss Hillary Clinton's chances
of gaining the White House: Underestimate her
at your own peril.

"We're not making a flat prediction, but a plausible case
can be made that she will become president on Jan. 20,
2009," writes Greg Valliere, chief political strategist
with the Stanford Group Company, a research group.

Here's Valliere's year-by-year scenario.

Her 2005 plan: Keep moving toward the center on national
security and social issues. A litmus test will be the
senator's vote on the John Roberts nomination - if she
votes to confirm the Supreme Court nominee, it would be a
sure sign that she plans to run.

Her 2006 plan: Pull out all the stops for a landslide
win in her Senate re-election bid. "Will any Republican
of note be suicidal enough to take her on? We doubt it,"
the report states.

Her 2007 plan: Raise tons of money. Clinton and her
husband have access to tens of millions of dollars in
campaign funding from a range of party activists.
"She'll probably set a record for the most money raised
by any candidate for a nomination - and in the process
will scare off most serious challengers."

Her 2008 plan: Wrap up the nomination by early March,
then watch a furious fight between mainstream Republicans
and the religious right. If Sen. John McCain's campaign
gains steam, it could send "horrified" religious
conservatives to the sidelines.

"Therein lies the heart of our analysis that Sen. Clinton
could win the presidency: If McCain or another mainstream
Republican wins the nomination, the religious right -
so crucial in providing votes for George W. Bush - may
sit at home," Valliere writes.

When it comes to the general election, the report points
out that if Clinton were to win all the states that
Sen. John Kerry won last year, she would already have
252 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

She could then win the election by taking one big state
that Bush won in 2004, such as Ohio or Florida, or a
combination of several smaller states that Bush carried.

The report concludes: "Hillary is too polarizing to
win, you say? People said that about her husband
but he won twice."

But the report also predicts that even if Clinton gains
the White House, both houses of Congress are likely to
remain under Republican control, which means "any
activism by a President Hillary Clinton would be blunted
by gridlock."