Hillary has nothing wrapped up.

Byline: Douglas Pike

The crusade to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton senator from New York takes me back to 1964, when Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts snatched a Senate seat in that same state. I was an anti-carpetbagger protester at the nominating convention, and in the fall, I rooted in vain for the Republican incumbent.

Annoyingly, my fellow New Yorkers elected another carpetbagger, James Buckley of Connecticut, to the Senate in 1970. But at least he was from the state next door. Bobby Kennedy also had a slim connection _ he had gone to school for a while in the state.

As Hillary Clinton fans get giddy over her new, no-name opponent for Senate, Rep. Rick Lazio, they should realize that the first lady is trying something that's shakier. As a rookie candidate, she could have gone back to Arkansas, used her school ties in Massachusetts or Connecticut, or gone way back to Illinois. Instead, she popped up in a New York suburb for the express purpose of shuttling back to Washington as a senator.

Sure, she's a quick learner who has already visited the state's 62 counties. Still, there's a staggering presumptuousness in this project _ and I say that not as a Hillary-hater, but as someone who admires her.

Of the scores of politicos, think-tankers and other experts who have stopped in on me and my fellow pontificators over the years, Hillary Clinton was the most impressive. She had the charisma of Oprah mixed with the friendliness of a neighbor. If only she had the time and energy to show those qualities in 100,000 small gatherings from Buffalo to Bay Shore, she would wash away her negatives and win going away.

The resume's spectacular. Her pre-White House activities range from chairing the Children's Defense Fund to rolling the dice on investments. She has been a strong partner in an administration whose domestic successes range from balancing the budget to expanding health coverage for kids. These merits stack up a lot higher than her early failure on health-care reform.