The air is filled tonight with reports of Hillary's imminent demise. Last night, while Obama was declaring his victory in the primaries she, instead of modestly standing down to let him have the stage, was still insisting in her turquoise pants suit that she was the better candidate. And so, her lack of dignity and graciousness endures to the bitter end. I might imagine that she did so clutching a bible and a gun, but I very much doubt that she reads the bible and I would not trust her with a gun.
It is said now that she will formally suspend her race on Saturday, and will state her support, though not endorsement, of Obama. Her strategy at that point, presumably, will bend toward either (a) securing the vice- presidential nomination for herself, or (b) manipulating events and her accumulated support to promote the defeat of Obama in the general election, (having failed to do so in the primaries). Personally, I am inclined, knowing what I do about the Clintons, to think that the latter will be her choice.
But if she pursues the former course, and actively solicits a place on the ticket, then I have this to say to Mr. Obama: If you capitulate to her pressure, you may win the election, but lose your presidency and your soul in the process. For if you believe for an instant that either of the Clintons will be willing to take a secondary role to a man whom they have already disdained, and to whose assassination she has twice alluded, you will deserve precisely what you will get.
In short: If Obama chooses Hillary as his running mate, he will have revealed himself a spineless fool. For neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton is constitutionally capable of being the true and faithful servant of anyone else's agenda or ambition. By putting her so close to the seat of power, whose occupancy is the only value she possesses, Obama will have, indeed, put the serpent in his own bosom.
The reference, of course, is to Kleopatra, and Kleopatra learned to her cost and our instruction, that you may escape from ruthless ambition and greed, but you will not do so with your kingdom, your legacy or your life.
