Hillary Vs. Sarah

The NY Times suggests that fall's election will not be between McCain and Obama, but Clinton and Palin:

ST. PAUL — The names at the top of the ballot on Nov. 4 will be McCain and Obama, but the juicier battle this fall for an important group of swing voters — white working women with children — may be fought between the other two stars of the Republican and Democratic conventions, Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska and Mr. McCain’s running mate, gave the best speech of her party’s convention on Wednesday night, drawing 37 million television viewers. And she made it clear that she aimed to win over undecided women voters with her own version of the history-making, “I’m one of you” message that Mrs. Clinton employed to great effect in her fight for the Democratic nomination.

Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has a legacy to protect: She has no intention of turning over her “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling,” as she called her supporters, to Ms. Palin, a social conservative whose policy positions are poison in Hillaryland. What is more, Mrs. Clinton wants to be the one to make history as the first woman to win at the top of a presidential ticket, be it in 2012 or 2016.

The question is, will Mrs. Clinton fight Ms. Palin to help her former rival, Mr. Obama? Clinton advisers say that Mrs. Clinton wants to do everything she can to elect Mr. Obama, so that she cannot be blamed if he loses — yet she also does not want to be too closely associated with him if he does lose, nor to tarnish her own image by taking on a rookie national politician like Ms. Palin and possibly coming up short.

Mrs. Clinton is heading to Florida on Monday to campaign for Mr. Obama. And while his advisers expect her to serve as a counterweight to the McCain-Palin ticket, Clinton advisers are emphatic that Mrs. Clinton does not plan to attack Ms. Palin. Whether that remains the case through the fall is an open question, especially if Ms. Palin starts doing as well with, say, women who watch “The View” as Mrs. Clinton did.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Hillary Clinton does not want Barack Obama to win.

That may come as a shock to some Democrats, but it's true. There is absolutely no value to Hillary should Obama win. It would take her out of the presidential running until probably 2016 when she'll be 68 years old. And in 2016 Sarah Palin will be 52 and Bobby Jindal 44. If that's not a GOP dream team, I don't know what is.

Hillary needs to look just supportive enough of Obama to keep the Dem party bigwigs happy with her performance, but she doesn't dare attack Palin in ways that will seem over-the-top and unfair. Some women will look at that as a betrayal of the sisterhood and could turn them against Hillary in a future contest. Basically, she's screwed no matter what she does, so she has to carefully navigate a plan for the next 60 days that will offend the fewest people.

She's willing to let McCain win figuring he'll only serve one term and she can take another shot in 2012. And, should he run for reelection, he'll be 76 and that can only hurt his chances. She probably figures that she can beat Palin or whoever the GOP puts up.

Hillary will make lots of appearances for Senate candidates, and will mention Obama now and then, but don't look for a full-throated attack on the GOP team. It's not in her best interest.