What's the story? Hillary, of course

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The Democrats have still got months to go before they nominate a candidate - and it has already got to the point where just the sight of those eyes, that jaw, that hair, makes me want to hurl the newsprint bearing her image into the nearest garbage can. I know from dinner parties, where the election is a major topic of conversation, that women, in particular, just do not want to talk about Hillary.

It's so complicated for us that it's become boring to go there. We tell ourselves we want to see a talented, clever woman who has worked hard become president. Yet there is something about Hillary's persona that leaves us wanting to vomit.

Not only does she have a smug "I'm in the lead" demeanour, but there are all the other much-discussed problems. Do we want the woman who "stood by her man" when he so publicly humiliated her? Do we want a woman whose seemingly contrived laugh is lampooned by conservative critics and liberal satirists alike as "the cackle"?

Do we want a woman whose policy pronouncements swing from Right to Left; who tells Iowans that America was founded on them while she's busy accepting money from controversial supermarket magnates like Ron Burkle? All of this can make her seem like a phony, opportunistic politician whose ideals can be amended if they get in the way.

Yet one thing prevents me from trashing the Hillary coverage. And that is the fact that there's a reason she's in the paper every day: she is the story. All that the other candidates, Democrat and Republican, can do is deflect off her narrative.

Take last week. Sunday: the papers were full of speculation over that cackle. Monday: New York magazine ran a piece that wondered what life in the new Clinton White House would be like. Wednesday came the news that she had raised $27 million since July, compared with $19 million by Barack Obama. Friday there were the photographs from her campaign, "Stand by Us".

Against such complexity, other candidates' stories just pale in comparison.

Vicky Ward is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair