Please Don't Go

"The real trouble would begin if Mr. Obama wins. He'd then have to cope with both Clintons inside his own administration. The former President is the definition of an unguided missile, whose every public word would be picked up and amplified by the media. Would Mrs. Clinton settle for a traditional veep role, having already been co-president for eight years? We doubt it. Mr. Obama could consign her to such a role, as other presidents have done to other veeps. But he'd then be inviting an internal guerrilla war -- if not from her, then from her many loyalists. Or from Bill. And she couldn't be fired . . .

"If he can't stand up to Hillary and Bill Clinton, forget about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

But it would be good for the Journal, which published entire books about Whitewater.

Hotline has a great line about how Hillary on the ticket would enable John McCain to offer "his own twist on Obamaniacs' anti-dynasty mantra: 'Bush-Clinton-Bush- Obama-Clinton.' "

Amid a flood of pieces on how Hill was hurt by sexism, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times says, it's the press, stupid:

"This media critic doesn't think sexism was her biggest problem when it came to media. Instead, I offer this humble list of the many ways Hillary Clinton blew it when it came to dealing with media during her campaign.

"Underestimating the YouTube factor -- It wasn't just that she talked about dodging sniper fire when reporters who had been on the trip had video proof that she didn't. Or that her husband said something on a radio show and then tried to tell reporters that he didn't say it. It was that those about-faces and many more were immortalized on the Internet, allowing foes to pass them around like baseball cards -- endlessly reliving the worst hits of the campaign.

"The Clintons, Bill in particular, seemed unprepared for the instant fact-checking and worldwide distribution that the smallest lies get online. It defused one of his biggest weapons, the ability to make any statement sound like the God's truth with his combination of personal charm and ex-Presidential authority. It also made him look whiny and evasive when complaining about press coverage that exposed his obfuscations . . .

"Reliving the Whitewater/Lewinsky press dynamic -- I get that the Clintons feel persecuted by the press because of all the Mickey Mouse crap that went down during the Whitewater/Lewinsky/Impeachment debacle. But when the dust cleared, the president had lied to just about everyone, and the lot of a politician is to endure constant vetting. Acting like a victim every time the press wrote a tough story on them, the Clintons just encouraged irritated journalists to nail them even harder. Isn't it better to pull a McCain and charm them into submission?"

Hillary did become more charming--or at least more accessible to reporters--after losing Iowa.

National Review's Jim Geraghty marshals the evidence:

"In the coming days, you will hear many asking whether Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House fell short because of sexism. And there will be that related question, 'is Obama sexist?' There is really not much evidence that Obama is sexist. There is only, 'Hold on a second, sweetie. We'll hold a press avail,' which he told a reporter at an event outside Detroit. And perhaps his comment to a factory worker in Allentown, Pa., that 'you're gorgeous, you look like you might be a dancer.'