Conspiracy Theory

Rook pays to much attention to politics.

We were never a big fan of Bill Clinton, but he was consistently better than the alternatives, and had the added advantage of not screwing things up too badly. He pandered a bit too much for Rook’s tastes, but he knew how the game of politics was played — and that was why he managed to keep himself in office, despite himself.

Hillary Clinton is no different, and perhaps a bit shrewder because of her experience with Bill’s campaigns. This is why I find the news reports today of Hillary “vowing to press on” after yet another night of the probability she can pull this rabbit out of her hat slipping away.

Maybe too much of his thinking is influenced by Robert Anton Wilson and the X-files, but Rook has suspected something for a few weeks that seems to be gaining popularity out there in the wider world: She’s running to destroy Obama, so she can face off against McCain in 2012.

It’s an audacious plan. It’s a diabolic plan, and if somehow it succeeds, Hillary Clinton will go down as one of the shrewdest politicans in decades, up there with Richard Nixon. She’s safe, as a Senator from New York, until at least 2012, and probably beyond. She’ll remain in the public eye all this time, with the perfect platform to criticize President McCain (or, one could also imagine, President Obama) and regain momentum for a run in 2012.

Perhaps we’re paranoid, but Hillary has eaten, breathed, and slept politics for over 30 years — and she is not ready to quit, even with taking back the White House for the Democrats.

Rook hopes he’s wrong.