Over at HotAir, Allah has ended a post wondering whether Hillary will run again in 2012 or 2016. In case you’re keeping score at home, Hillary will be 68 years old when Campaign 2016 rolls around. My sense is assuming Hilary fails to draw the inside straight necessary to derail the Runaway Obama Train (mixed metaphor alert!), she will not run for president again. Yes, you read that correctly – this is in all likelihood the former First Lady’s last presidential rodeo. I think Hillary is likely to follow the Ted Kennedy path and try to be a groundbreaking senator who plays an instrumental role in shepherding an inordinate number of ruinous liberal legislative items into law. Kennedy lost to Jimmy Carter in 1980, but would have been the Democratic frontrunner in ’84 and ’88. He declined to run in either cycle, perhaps reasoning, “If I can’t beat Jimmy Carter, who can I beat?” He hung around the senate, doing a lot of damage there (or good, depending on how you view things) over the ensuing decades. Ted Kennedy had a fixed amount of negatives that made it impossible for him to someday become president. It’s the same with Hillary. Besides, sort of like Kennedy’s inability to defeat Carter, if Hillary can’t prevail in a field where her two main opponents had a combined nine years of service in the senate, what kind of field will she be able to beat? Yes, it’s risky to be writing Hillary’s eulogy when she may still slink from the crypt once more. But I bet that once vanquished, she’ll go the Ted Kennedy route and concentrate on legislating from one of the senate’s safest seats. From that perch, her personal life and certain bumptious relatives won’t matter, and she can become one of her party’s leaders. And just as Ted Kennedy created a legacy that stood alone and apart from that of his more gifted brothers, Hillary can achieve her own accomplishments and craft a reputation that doesn’t rely on her “experience” as First Lady.
