Clinton Raises $2.7 mil in D.C.; Protester Interrupts Event

Nothing like a thousand of your closest friends to give you 2.7 million reasons to feel good about your presidential campaign.

That's how many dollar bills Hillary Rodham Clinton took in at her kick-off fundraiser in D.C. last night at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in the posh Woodley neighborhood of the city.

Festivities began with a buffet-style reception and open bar for guests who had ponied up a minimum $1,000 ($2,300 max, per federal election rules) to have the run of the hotel's grand ballroom, which was festooned with enormous monitors (not unlike the one in the "1984"-ish YouTube vid!), a U.S. flag the size of something building-wrap-artist Christo might use, and banners proclaiming Hillary in 2008.

The highlight, of course, was HRC's entrance with that guy who used to be president -- husband Bill -- by her side. In intro'ing his candidate-wife, Bill led with a story he told two nights earlier at a fundraiser in Manhattan, that toward the end of their time at Yale Law School, he advised her to leave him and go into politics since he was facing an uncertain future with a lot of debt. "And she said to me," he recounted with a chuckle, "'Oh, I'll never run for anything.'"

Bill then yielded the stage, and HRC went into high campaign mode, thanking everyone who'd come and then listing her main goals as president (universal health care, energy independence, improved educational opportunities).

Though a vocal critic of the Bush administration's (mis)steps in Iraq, Clinton didn't address the war until after a CodePink protester was escorted out of the ballroom after chanting, "What about Iraq? What about Iraq?" "I understand the frustration and outrage," Clinton said, her tone intensifying.

She vowed that if Bush didn't get the country out of Iraq by January 2009, she would. If elected, that is.

Hill then joined Bill amid scores of donating fans and admirers seeking handshakes and, from Bill at least, autographs. House lights danced, and the sound system blasted Bachman Turner Overdrive's old hit, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet."

---By William Triplett in Washington