New York Daily News, please define “election-ready”

Sigh, it landed a Drudge link and is making the rounds today, but this Daily News piece pretty much defines what's wrong with journalism today.

The headline:

No political race in sight, but Hillary Clinton's camp is election-ready

The article is almost too dumb for words. For instance, the catchy “election-ready” phrase is one the Daily News concocted. Meaning, nobody from the Clinton camp makes that claim. The Daily News, based on virtually zero evidence, announces to the world that Clinton is “election-ready,” in a lame attempt to gin up controversy. (i.e. Will the overly ambitious SOS challenge Obama????)

Here's the feeble peg for the entire non-story [emphasis added]

Hillary Clinton says running for office isn't on her “radar,” but she still has an eight-person political team and sports two overflowing campaign war chests.

Her team transformed the former Democratic White House contender's massive campaign debts into a $3 million mountain of political cash, according to federal fund-raising records through the end of June.

Only in the clueless world of the Daily News does $3 million represent a “mountain” of political cash for a potential presidential candidate. (Pssst NYND, Obama and McCain last year spent more than $1 billion on their campaigns.) And only in the clueless world of the Daily News does a staff of eight mean Clinton's “ready” to wage a national campaign.