The American Spectator

p> RUSH TO ANNOUNCEMENT br> Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was not prepared to make her announcement that she was running for the Democrat nomination for the presidency, but the campaign of Barack Hussein Obama threw her plans out the window, say senior Clinton advisers in Washington and New York. /p>

“The plan was for February or March, not now, but Obama’s move kind of forced our hand a bit earlier than we expected,” says one New York-based source. “We had everything in place, he just made us move a little faster than we really wanted to.”

Obama’s decision could not have been a surprise to anyone. Longtime advisers and campaign consultants who could have committed to other prospective presidential candidates months ago had taken passes in order to work for him. The writing was on the wall.

“But we’ve had a plan and a calendar in place for her [Clinton] for close to a year. That calendar remains largely in tact. The difference is instead of some parts of the roll out beginning in mid-February, they are being rolled out in late January,” says a Washington-based Clinton backer.

Obama’s presence has also thrown the presidential aspirations of former Sen. John Edwards into a tizzy. Edwards has banked — literally — his hopes on the backing of big labor. But with Obama and his labor ties in Chicago and with Clinton coming out earlier, Edwards’ hopes of building up some cash sooner rather than later have been put in doubt. “The field is suddenly a lot more crowded than we thought it would be at this time,” says an Edwards fundraiser. “I’m just one, but I’m having problems getting the number of commitments I thought I’d have because of Obama and now [Bill] Richardson in the race so much earlier than we thought.”

All of which sounds like a pretty thin gruel of an excuse for a leftover candidate with a light resume second only to that of the man who stole his thunder last week. The reality is Obama and Clinton are both looking at fundraising models significantly different from Edwards’ or Richardson’s for that matter. Further, Edwards could have been fundraising for months before the announcements, but instead had to focus on burnishing his resume on foreign policy issues, something Obama was attempting to do at the same time.

What’s more, talk of Obama’s many rumored failings — such as last week’s rumor that Obama was raised a Muslim, — isn’t coming from Clinton people so much as it from Edwards surrogates, making it clear that Obama right now strategically is viewed as a greater threat to Edwards than to Clinton.

The next big question: What role does former president Bill Clinton expect to play moving forward, and how will Senator Clinton address his role and anticipated role in a female Clinton Administration?