Hillary Rodham Clinton

The patron walks into a diner, ambles over to a booth, sits down and peruses the selections in a small jukebox at the table. A sullen man lingers nearby, his face vaguely menacing. Sound familiar? No, it's not Tony Soprano waiting for his dinner in the final, much-discussed scene of The Sopranos. It's Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a short movie unveiled yesterday on her campaign Web site. In the scene, a slightly awkward parody of the HBO series' denouement, the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate is ostensibly picking a campaign theme song from among the choices in the jukebox when her husband, in an untucked shirt, joins her. The clip quickly landed on well-read blogs such as Gawker.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking advice on "one of the most important issues" of her presidential campaign: picking a campaign theme song. More than 100,000 Americans have responded to her lighthearted call for help. Some have been inspired to compose original tunes. The reaction is another example of the Internet's growing role in politics. More than 500,000 people have watched Clinton's videotaped appeal on YouTube or her campaign Web site since the campaign posted it Wednesday.

BOSTON -- It's been almost a year since that well-known political pundit, Sharon Stone, explained why Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton couldn't win the presidency. "A woman should be past her sexuality when she runs," intoned Ms. Stone. "Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that." I never figured out whether this was a compliment or an insult to the 59-year-old New York Democrat. Of course, this was only one of innumerable pink grids put over Senator Clinton's campaign.

WASHINGTON -- Is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's inevitability less inevitable? The growing consensus seems to be that the former first lady's ascendancy as first female president of the United States is less assured than previously thought, thanks in large part to the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. This is polite talk from the emperor's court. The naked truth is, Senator Clinton has a bigger problem than Senator Obama. Anyone who has heard her speak knows what it is, so we may as well talk about it. That voice.

For once in my lifetime / I feel like a giant / I soar like an eagle / As tho' I had wings / For this is my moment / My destiny calls me / And tho' it may be just once in my lifetime / I'm gonna do great things. - "Once in a Lifetime," by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse COLUMBIA, S.C. --There she is, Miss A-mer-i-ca. There she - oh, no, sorry. It's just Hillary. But standing there center stage, surrounded by queens (the kind who wear tiaras), she looked like Miss Queen of the Universe greeting her court.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats have an overwhelmingly favorable view of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but she would be soundly beaten if she ran for president against Sen. John McCain, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. Underscoring the New York lawmaker's vulnerability, the poll also found that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican little known to most voters, would give Clinton a run for her money. Given a choice between McCain and Clinton, half of those surveyed said they would vote for the Arizonian, compared with 36 percent for the former first lady.

Disaster films routinely kill off thousands of "ordinary people" in actual locations just for kicks, without rousing public protest. Yet the excitingly well-made Death of a President imagines the assassination of President Bush as a way of analyzing political violence. And Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, sight unseen, has labeled it despicable. Death of a President is a responsible piece of political fiction. If anything, it's overly responsible: The gifted director, Gabriel Range, pins morals to his tale rather than let it speak for itself.

DENVER -- From somewhere in the luncheon crowd, chants of "four more years" break out as Bill Clinton is introduced. "We need a Bill Clinton style of leadership back in our country," Sen. Ken Salazar tells fellow Colorado Democrats, recalling Clinton's presidency as a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Clinton isn't running for office, but he might well be in the early phase of a White House comeback try unlike any other. Public approval for the way he handled his job as president has increased significantly in recent years, even among Republicans.

BUFFALO, N.Y. --Six years ago, when she was still trying to prove herself as a viable political figure in her own right, Hillary Rodham Clinton ran a $41 million campaign that included a catchy "listening tour" and flooded the airwaves in a race that dominated the New York political scene for more than a year. This time around, many of the political trappings have fallen away. Her campaign office in Manhattan is mostly a formality. She has no zippy slogans. Clinton does not even have a campaign manager in New York, a logical vacancy stemming from her lack of any serious opponent.

Lloyd Bentsen, the former four-term U.S. senator who was the 1988 Democratic vice presidential nominee and served as President Bill Clinton's first secretary of the treasury, died yesterday. He was 85. Mr. Bentsen, who had been in ill health since suffering two strokes in 1998, died at his home in Houston, a family spokesman said. In a statement yesterday, President Bush called Mr. Bentsen "a man of great honor and distinction." During his 22 years in the Senate, the tall, courtly millionaire was known for his generally conservative voting record on foreign policy and economic issues while maintaining a more moderate position on many social issues.