Aha!

I think I have it figured out. The Democratic Party is in the midst of performing an appendectomy on itself. Hillary Clinton is a vestigial remnant that has become toxic and threatens the body politic. Although no longer significant in a productive sense she remains a dangerous presence.

Last weekend Barack Obama proved his worth by lending his not too inconsiderable influence to help the Dems capture Dennis Hastert's old congressional seat. The winner, a newcomer to politics, is a former physicist who came upon wealth and was by all accounts not a charismatic figure or gifted speaker. If Barack brings those kinds of trophies and he's not yet even POTUS just think what he could do in high office. This net gain came at the expense of Republicans. It's fair to say that Hillary Clinton could never replicate this feat in her state of New York.

In the zero sum game of partisan politics, this is the essence of power. While Hillary fights tooth and nail for the party's nomination with her NCAA level skill, Barack Obama is using his professional talent to become President of the United States. He goes into states where he is not favored and meets with constituencies that are not natural allies. He issues direct but respectful challenges to John McCain and unlike Senator Clinton doesn't provide the opposition a thick portfolio of his weaknesses.

Obama is gold backed currency to Hillary's overextended Mastercard. Her career in public life is effectively finished. Do not expect her to return to Washington after her term runs out. She is threatening to cost the Dems millions of dollars that they would rather spend on contesting against Republicans in the fall than holding elections in Florida and Michigan after they forfeited their rights and just to prolong her slim chances. Barack certainly doesn't need this to prove his legitimacy and neither does the DNC.

This is definitely not something that one does if one expects to return or be invited back. I now believe that Mrs. Clinton doesn't care for the Senate. Her time there was just an attempt to show that she wasn't really all that bad before taking a swipe at the White House. We all know better now.

Hillary is through with public life. The Hill reports that Clinton and RNC attacks on Obama appear coordinated. The Huffington Post and DailyKos have both pivoted noticeably against Clinton: calling foul on her endorsement of McCain and noting her odd switch on Obama's fitness for leadership by suggesting he would be an excellent VP. The New York Times's recent piece on her inner circle also suggests a person unprepared for greater responsibilities than she currently holds.

There is mass outcry against Geraldine Ferraro's incredulous comment about Obama being advantaged over Hillary, the wife of a recent President, because he is black. Hillary has reportedly revamped her website to appear more like Obama's. The suggestion for voting by mail in Florida is denounced even by Florida Democrats. (Obama was reported as receiving no votes in certain Harlem districts.) The recent Elliot Spitzer bombshell is the last nail in the coffin. Not only did he endorse Senator Clinton, but the prostitute issue raises up uncomfortable memories of Bill's dalliances. The Spitzer scandal is particularly disadvantageous to Hillary because it gives the media beasts fresh meat and decreases their incentive to prolong the illusion of a Clinton resurgence.

The Clintons have promulgated the notion of a brokered convention. They're stuck in the Sixties. The truth is that the convention is a coronation.

Nah, bruh. Hillary is done. She won't get re-elected to the Senate. She and Bill are engaged in a folie-a-deux, a mental disorder in which two close individuals share the same delusion. What the country is witnessing is the kind of mental breakdown that was observed by insiders while LBJ was losing Vietnam and Nixon was being strangled by Watergate. Such blunders, as Clinton's, are ill tolerated in elite politics. Supposed loyalists seek to evacuate and find shelter and enemies use the opportunity to strike back. Barack is the emerging sun and the Clintons are a setting moon.

The last minute attempt to smear Obama just as the general election is about to start has sealed the Clintons's fate. As a former president, Bill will always be accorded respect and by association so will Hillary. But they are effectively in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter category. They will effectively become peripheral figures which you treat like distant relations that you encounter every so often at a cookout; force a smile, pat too aggressively on the back, and quickly excuse yourself to go to the punch bowl.

Hillary is a pitbull that will not let go and must be carefully euthanized.

Update 11:10AM EST:

This is a very, very dangerous and unsteady posture to assume. A classic Gulf of Tonkin move: create a provocation to incite Iran and turn to the American public and say, "See what they did?" And launch a 'just' war.

This is why people who say that there is no difference between Dems and Repubs or Hillary and Barack are wrong. The commander-in-chief reference that she dropped last week was a thinly veiled expression for willingness to go to war. That is why Hillary put herself and McCain ahead of Obama and why she will never be the nominee. Nancy Pelosi has practically ruled Hillary out.

There is some serious jockeying among the elites right now. The outcome is no longer in the voters hands. The Dems are in the tenuous position of extirpating the hawks in their midst. Hard to do this without disemboweling itself, to be sure. The chess match isn't just between the candidates but what they represent. The Dean and Pelosi wing will never countenance the Clintons. That is why Lieberman had to go and Hillary has to go. But you can't just expel them. This is Shakespearean drama being played out in real life: King Richard the Second(Clinton) versus Bolingbroke (Obama).