The Sun is, if nothing else, ahead of its time. Rather than a follow-up to Bill Hammond's state budget piece — after all, the budget did pass yesterday, and more than a few people have something to say about it — today Seth and Ira opted for Ben "Crystal Ball" Smith's piece on possible presidential campaigns by Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Clinton (Dem-N.Y.) in 2008. 2008. You'd expect Smith to have some pretty juicy tidbits to back him up, but you'd be wrong. Instead, the piece rambles on about endorsements both candidates have made in the New Hampshire Senate race, and after the jump drifts off into details about the various candidates. Even if it's all true, and Hillary and Rudy are contemplating running, six years is a long time, especially in journalism (which, again, seems to exclude the Sun).

You know you're in for 15 inches of hot air when a writer's third paragraph includes a sentence like "politicking in New Hampshire is a ritual for people who hope to be president — the other half is denying indignantly that those ambitions have anything to do with trips to New Hampshire." So later on in the story, when a representative from Clinton's PAC says the senator's stumping for a New Hampshire Democrat has nothing to do with any long-term political plans, Smith wants us to read "of course she does."

On the other hand, there isn't so much as a morsel of a soundbite from Giuliani. Instead, Smith launches into some deep analysis of an ad Giuliani made for incumbent senator Robert Smith; Ben Smith thinks that Giuliani, by simply mentioning his own name, is laying the groundwork for a hypothetical campaign six years down the road. That Giuliani might not need to remind New Hampshire voters who he is never seems to cross Ben Smith's mind, nor does the fact that by endorsing Sen. Smith — whose unorthodox conservatism is unpopular with Republican leaders and who trails his primary opponent — Giuliani is putting at risk a chance to make a good impression on New Hampshire voters. If Smith loses, Giuliani doesn't win.

Why this story, when Bill Hammond turned in a solid piece on a plan to delink post-Sept. 11 tax breaks for businesses above Canal Street? Smarternysun, unlike Smith, won't speculate on the possible motives of people whom we don't know and, in all likelihood, would never speak with us anyway.

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WIRE WATCH: Four stories, five counting a "Staff Writer for the Sun," out of 18 pieces. However, we could be wrong — Page 3's "Before 9/11, Who Knew What When?" is completely unattributed. If it's like most of the paper's Washington stories, it's wire as well, but a note to Seth: Don't bite the hands that feed you. With moneybags like Lord Black, wire service may seem like an easy way to fill space, but if the they bolt, where are you going to get stories like Page 1's "Dog Is too Ugly to Find a Home"?