A Lesser Evil?

Awhile back, I wrote of the Clinton campaign:

In the short span of a political campaign, should something sufficiently bad come to light about Barack Obama, he will have no time for the public to forget, and Hillary will be waiting in the wings, and made to look relatively more worthy than she deserves. (And without firm moral principles to guide one's judgement, appearances are effectively everything. She will have effectively been "cleansed" in the eyes of many by Obama.)

And the Clintons, having the requisite moral turpitude to make it as politicians in today's culture have a firm basis in reality to hope that Obama has another yet-to-be revealed skeleton in his closet. He is, after all, one of them under his skin.

Pardon me for feeling prescient, but speculation has been building lately to the effect that Hillary Clinton might be plotting to yank the rug out from under Barack Obama. Just yesterday, the New York Daily News put out a column about Barack Obama's playing defense at his own convention, making some pretty big concessions to the Clintons:

Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention.

What does he get out of it? Not much and not for long.

The fleeting sense that he is a magnanimous nominee won't get him a single vote he wouldn't get anyway. Ditto for the idea that he's going the extra mile to unify the party. Those who refuse to accept him as the legitimate winner aren't likely to do so just because he caves into her demands.

...

The substantive problem for Obama is that he is already underperforming against John McCain. He limped across the finish line in the primaries and, since Clinton conceded in June, his poll numbers have flat-lined.

...

[T]he list of what Hillary wants and what Hillary gets is unprecedented for somebody who lost the nomination.[link dropped]

Michael Goodwin doesn't go as far as stating that Clinton could secure the Democratic nomination, but the American Thinker (via Dismuke) did last week, and considered how and why such an upset could occur.

As Dismuke and others have observed, Clinton is very unpleasant and does not do so well under the campaign microscope. But she is within reach of the nomination and has had time for people to forget her shortcomings as a candidate while focusing on Obama's.

I'm not sure we'll see Clinton take the nomination, but it would be funny if she did, and it would be funny to see her try. Nevertheless, I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for Myrhaf to write a list of "10 Reasons Hillary Might Not Be Such a Bad President!

-- CAV