Operation Chaos and Hillary's Future

The narrow victory of Hillary in Indiana is proof that Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos is really working. Had Hillary lost in Indiana, then she would have been in an almost untenable position in terms of remaining in the Democratic race. Although everyone is talking about how she has lost already, the next two weeks look very good for her. She should win lopsided victories in West Virginia and in Kentucky. If she gets those wins, then she can say that since February Obama has only won a single state primary.

Hillary may be staying in the race, as Dick Morris has suggested, to raise money and to insure that Obama loses in 2008. Both are not beyond the Machiavellian machinations of the Clintons. She may also be staying in the race because she suspects that something really damaging will come out of the Rezko trial. Obama's name has come up during the trial, and even more damaging allegations have come out about Democrat Governor Blagojevich.

The jury will begin to deliberate in mid-May, and a conviction of Rezko (or a deal cut by Rezko) could easily spread to a wider web of suspects. Obama himself is probably not implicated, but given the sleazy corruption of Blagojevich and Illinois Democrat politics - remembering that not too long ago Obama was an Illinois state senator - it is far from unthinkable that bad things could come out about the ethics of Obama.

This would add another big problem for him in terms of electability. Being surrounded by America-haters would turn off blue collar voters - Reagan Democrats - but being surrounded by old style Chicago political mobsters would reduce his cachet among white collar Leftist elitists. Will Obama be forced, during June, to explain that he was not really in bed with gangsters - gangsters from nice countries like Syria, no less?

Until that case is resolved, and it likely will not be until the end of the month, Hillary would be an idiot to pull out of the race. And then there is the chance that more offhand comments could offend more Americans against Obama. He is in the same class of alien space travelers that Howard Dean is in. Obama knows practically nothing about America.

Bill Clinton knew all the tricks, all the strings to pull, all the words to say - and it is safe to say that Hillary does pretty well on that also, particularly with Bill at her side. The Clintons lie constantly, of course, but that has seldom hurt them. Obama's honest comment about people clinging to God and guns is incomparably more damaging to his campaign than Clinton saying, with a straight face, that he is only campaigning for Hillary because she would make the best president.

There is another element in all this: The Clintons take things very personally. Not only has Obama stolen the presidency from her (bad enough!) but the Left has savagely turned against the Clintons. The vitriol of the Left is worse than almost anything that the Right ever said about them, and - if this matters - what the Right said about them was largely true, while the slime of the Left is full of lies. Being slandered with lies, as the Clintons are learning, is particularly infuriating.

So Bill and Hillary may, indeed, have decided to gum up the works. If Obama wins, they are not going to be welcome anywhere. If Obama loses, particularly if he loses because he loses the white female vote, then Hillary can tell Democrats that she would have won and that they cannot win without her. She has a power base in New York and in the Clinton machine, and that would survive a McCain presidential victory.

A New York senator married to a former president is never out of the big power picture. She would be able to demand attention. If she bends a bit and appears more on Fox News or talk radio, then she could become the Democrat that Republican voters would listen to. That could become a position of enormous power.

If Obama wins, then Hillary and Bill become non-entities within the establishment of the Left. The first black president is no longer black. Hillary could not run for president again until she was at least sixty-eight. And the vindictive Left will never forget her for not falling on the live grenade, sacrificing herself to the greater cause, when she had the chance. So run, Hillary, run. You have nothing to lose. And we will help you.