Clinton campaign heads to the unmarked graveyard of forgotten lies

Howard Fineman handicaps the horse race:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is teetering on the brink, no matter what the meaningless national horserace numbers say. The notion that she has a post-Iowa “firewall” in New Hampshire is a fantasy, and she is in danger of losing all four early contests, including Nevada and South Carolina – probably to Sen. Barack Obama, who is now, in momentum terms, the Democratic frontrunner.

[. . .]

National polls still give Hillary a double-digit lead. Those polls mean nothing. What matters now is not the number but the direction, and Obama is movin’ on up at a rapid pace. Little pieces of evidence matter. In Manchester, N.H., the other day, Democratic Gov. John Lynch showed up at the Obama-Oprah rally, ostensibly to introduce Oprah, but, really to cover his bets politically. The newest polls in the state show why: Obama is tied with Hillary, and people are literally exchanging her lawn signs for his. If he can win Iowa – and it remains a big if – Hillary’s campaign could collapse. New Hampshire would almost surely go his way. The Culinary Workers in Nevada might well endorse him, as could influential South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn. Black Democrats have complained for years that Iowa and New Hampshire are “too white.” But the irony is, South Carolina African-Americans I talked to last weekend want to see if Obama can win white votes before they commit to him. There is no better way of doing that than in Iowa and New Hampshire. And don’t forget something else: he has 150,000 online contributors. He can raise cash fast.

In practical terms this doesn't mean too much. I don't mean it doesn't really mean that Mrs. Bill Clinton's campaign is in trouble becasue it is. What I mean is that it really doesn't matter too much whether Clinton or Obama is the Democrat nominee. Neither one of them is competant to be president and either would be a disaster for the nation.

However, it is just so damn sweet to see the Clintons being rejected by their own party. One thing everyone need to understand about this whole campain is that in Bill Clinton's mind HE is the candidate. This whole thing is about putting him back in the White House in order to erase his impeachment. Remember that stump speech where he was supposed to be telling everyone how great Hillary was and he mentioned himself 90 times and her 6 times?

When he lost an election in Arkansas friends of Bill said that he went into a depression so deep that they feared for his sanity. Imagine what he will go through if "he" can't even win the Democrat primary. For a person whose entire existence revolves around being loved by everyone around him and being the perpetual object of everyone's attention a loss like this could push him completely over the edge.

Of course his rage will turn toward Hillary. She will be seen as the one who denied him his last chance to regain his station. She will be the one who couldn't pull her weight. She will be the one upon whom revenge must be taken. And from Hillary's perspective it will be Bill's baggage that kept her from realizing her ambitions. The possibility that the two of them could start publicly unloading on each other in the bitterest divorce fight since Henry VIII had Ann Boleyn burned at the stake for witchcraft is the kind of thing that the blogosphere was invented to cover.