Ace in the Hole

Tonight is the second presidential debate, this time in St. Louis and in a town hall meeting format. Since we don't now how the participants are chosen or what their real political leanings are (they're supposedly all uncommitted voters), there's no telling what kind of wacky questions they will come up with. Bush is usually pretty good in these situations, so there's hope that he'll do better than last time.

The polls show the race tightening up, but I still think there's an ace in the hole for the Bush team - Bill & Hilary Clinton. There's no way that Bill & Hill can allow Kerry to win the presidency. Why? The Clintons are loyal only to themselves, and not to the Dems. If Kerry wins he becomes the incumbent in 2008 which will prevent Hilary from running. Hilary cannot afford to wait until 2012. She'll be too old and by then other, younger stars of the Dem party will have come to the forefront.

My theory is that Clinton has a bunch of his old cronies working for Kerry for one reason - to be ready to mess up the Kerry campaign if necessary. We've already seen the Sandy Berger document scandal take the wind out of Kerry's sails, and new Kerry spokesmen Joe Lockhart (former Clinton press secretary) has made one embarrassing gaffe after another. Should the race remain tight, I expect to see a series of Kerry embarrassments coming out in the 10 days or so before the election. Hilary has too much to lose should Kerry win.