GOP Handing 2016 to Hillary

On Saturday, Hillary Clinton took a resounding shot at Republicans. "Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me," she said. "It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim. They want to control women." Clinton isn't supposed to get involved in domestic politics, "but this was a moment pregnant with possibility," writes Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. "The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts … has roused and riled Hillary."

"In some kind of insane bout of mass misogyny, Republicans are hounding out the women voters," Dowd writes, providing "a glide path to the White House both for Obama in 2012 and Hillary in 2016." Women have realized that their emancipation isn't as secure as they thought, and that to protect it "they may need one of their own." The column has set Washington talking. On MSNBC this morning, Game Change author John Heilemann predicted there was a "99.4%" chance Clinton would run in 2016, according to Politico. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)