They'll Be Back

Outraged howls are heard from the liberal-left these days after their stunning divination Hillary and Bill Clinton are not very nice people. The carefully laid plan of Barack Obama (whose naiveté on this alone disqualifies him from the presidency) to run a campaign that transcended race has been upended by the Clintons and his supporters are furious. Bill's recent comparison of Obama's campaign with that of Jesse Jackson's twenty years ago completes a Clinton ploy, predicted a week ago by Dick Morris, of forcing Obama to be a black candidate after all, despite his and his dewy-eyed supporters' vehement desire he not be.

Critics expressing outrage are unmindful of two facts about Hillary: she is the most ruthless person since Lyndon Johnson to run for the presidency and she is smarter than they are. Add to that she's married to a man equally ruthless and smart. She has wanted to be president most of her adult life, probably even before she met Bill, and now her time has come: Bill had his turn, now it's hers and she and Bill will not be denied. Hillary and Bill don't care about Barack Obama except he is in Hillary's way and must be crushed. They don't care about blacks: their numbers are waning, they don't vote anyway and those few that do always vote Democratic. Hillary and Bill don't care about "unity" in the Democratic party, that will be attended to after Hillary claims the nomination so rightfully hers.

Hillary and Bill needn't worry unduly about outraged attacks from left-wing blogs, the Nation, the New York Times and the lack of support from the likes of tired old Teddy Kennedy (the gin-soaked, criminally negligent philandering has-been's recent endorsement of Obama will hardly help that campaign any). Hillary and Bill know something about estranged critics from the left they don't know themselves: they will all come back. After having dispatched Obama and sewn up the nomination, Hillary and Bill will turn their attention to the the Republican nominee. By September, when the campaign of lies, smears, underhanded ploys and character assassinations gets going full-bore against those loathsome and cloddish Republicans and their candidate, the estranged left-wing critics of Hill and Bill will quickly forget the two's earlier unkind acts and return to the sidelines to laugh and cheer them on; to clap their hands and stomp their feet, just the way they did ten years ago during the Lewinsky scandal and its aftermath. All will be forgiven.