"They are likely to nominate a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate."

Paul Gigot interviews Karl Rove, who's got some predictions:

Looking ahead, he adds, "Iraq will be in a better place" as the surge continues. Come the autumn, too, "we'll see in the battle over FISA" -- the wiretapping of foreign terrorists -- "a fissure in the Democratic Party." Also in the fall, "the budget fight will have been fought to our advantage," helping the GOP restore, through a series of presidential vetoes, its brand name on spending restraint and taxes.

As for the Democrats, "They are likely to nominate a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate" by the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Holding the White House for a third term is always difficult given the pent-up desire for change, he says, but "I think we've got a very good chance to do so."...

... Americans "do want change," but "every election is a change election"; even in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was popular, the Gipper famously said at the nominating convention for George H. W. Bush that, "We are the change." Adds Mr. Rove, "I don't want to be Pollyanish about it, but if we keep our nerve and represent big things, we'll win." He won't cite a favorite, if he has one, among the GOP candidates, though he has friends in the various campaigns. He'll offer advice, if asked, but at 56 years old says he is done with political consulting.

Hmmm.... 56 doesn't sound old to me. I wonder what Rove really will do. Anyway, what's "fatally flawed" about Hillary? Flawed, I get. But why fatally? Someone has to win. Who's so less-than-fatally flawed on the other side?

It seems so obvious, so early, that Hillary will get the nomination. That allows the other side to develop an elaborate attack on her and then to wait and wait to unleash it. Meanwhile, she can't concentrate on just one of the Republicans, and they really are rather different. Who knows? I assume Hillary will win the presidency. I find myself going through an involuntary process of accommodation to the idea. That is an advantage of emerging as the inevitable nominee so early. On the other hand, a year from now, she'll still be hovering around, not achieving anything, but just being what she always was, the inevitable nominee. That's going to be really boring. What happens to the hunger for change?