Hillary Stays in for 2012

she's running now to be the candidate who didn't quit when it's time to run in 2012. of course, she's counting on an obama loss.

This is precisely what Hillary Clinton is doing. She is staying in the race because losing comes soon enough anyway and life teaches that anything can happen. Sure, she's hurting the Democratic Party a bit and, sure, she's inflicting some damage on Barack Obama. He will not only hear echoes of Clinton's attacks out of the mouth of John McCain, but on the Internet and elsewhere they will be recycled so that Clinton herself will be the attacker. Nothing dies on YouTube.

But in the end, when Obama is crowned king of the Democrats, Clinton will throw her arms around him and the music will swell and the crowds will cheer -- and everything will be forgotten. And when that happens, Hillary Clinton -- who will only be 65 in 2012 and four years after that still younger than McCain is now -- will be positioned to run for president, not as someone's wife, but as a gritty fighter who just would not quit.