A spokesman for Hillary Clinton announced today that, to retool itself for the final months of the campaign and counter the growing challenge from Senator Barack Obama, the Clinton campaign will replace Hillary Clinton with a newer and better version of herself.

The decision to replace Clinton with a different version of herself came less than a week after the departure of campaign manager Patti Solis-Doyle, and the day after Clinton suffered sweeping losses in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. It marks the first full-body replacement of an active presidential candidate in the history of American politics.

Speaking privately, Clinton campaign officials expressed relief about the decision, and optimism it would swing the momentum in the race back in their direction.

"We looked at the problems we were having," one Clinton aide said, "and it became clear that we needed to do more than just shake things up. Our problem was transcendent. We needed a new Hillary."

Advisors to the campaign said that replacing Hillary with a different version of herself will free the campaign from everything that's been dragging it down in recent weeks.

"Just think," one advisor said. "She no longer has to explain or apologize for the Iraq War, because she didn't vote for it. She can finally say she was against the war from the beginning, because she is no longer the person who authorized and funded it."

Clinton aides pointed to other advantages to replacing Hillary at the top of the ticket. "A new Hillary can give livelier speeches," one advisor said. "Half the country won't hate her. She doesn't have to wear that look of killing boredom when audience members are asking questions. At campaign rallies, she can recite the names of friends and supporters by heart, instead of reading them off note cards. The possibilities are endless."

Campaign officials said a new Clinton could also campaign for health care reform without the albatross of her previous failed effort slung around her neck, and finally expand her theme beyond the constant reiteration of the many years she's spent in Washington.

"You can only recite the fact of your experience so many times before you lose people," one advisor said. "Our train left that station a few miles back."

"The best part," another advisor added, "is that we're still running the first viable female candidate. We've still got history on our side."

Clinton officials said they were looking into other changes, including replacing Chelsea with a daughter who more fully embodies an image of progressive change.

"Chelsea is an intelligent and extremely accomplished young woman," one advisor confided, raising his eyebrows and smiling just a little, "but imagine that, instead of joining a Wall Street hedge fund after graduation she had, say, volunteered for the Peace Corps."

"Or imagine that she's a poet," another chimed in, although advisors also cautioned that their plans were still in the preliminary stage, and that no final decisions had been made.

Clinton's advisors said they were most intrigued by the prospect of replacing former President Bill Clinton. Hillary advisor Mark Penn said the advantages of doing so were obvious. "In one stroke we eliminate the nation's memory of an inspirational leader tragically doomed by his insatiable appetite and mincing intellect," Penn said. "We get the legacy without the unfortunate stain of history. It's a win-win."

Clinton officials gave no date for Clinton's replacement, saying they were in talks with philosophers and artificial intelligence researchers at the University of California and that there were still some technical details to be worked out. But they said they hoped to have the new Clinton in place before the Texas and Ohio primaries.

They also remained confident that, despite the apparent ontological hurdles, they could replace their candidate with a completely new, but still existentially authentic, version of herself.

"The Beatles and Madonna reinvented themselves," one advisor said. "Why not Hillary?"