Hillary Announces "Last Public Position"

Bill would probably say "missionary".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has once more reiterated that she will not run for president in 2012, going so far as to refer to her current role in government as "my last public position."

Some of you might be tempted to smirk behind your hands and ask: "What does this do to your prognostication that Hillary will challenge Obama in 2012?" Allow me to channel my inner Machiavelli. Hillary was damaged by wikileaks. Foreign policy was supposed to be her strong suit. She could step into the breach and mend fences like the weakened Obama never could. Only now, leaked revelations about the inner workings of her state department have severely weakened Hillary instead and eroded much of her political capital abroad. So she makes the statement she's not interested in going any farther. In other words, I'm not overly ambitious. Which is a good trait for a presidential candidate to have. So, if she and her team cannot reconstruct her credibility in the next two years, then all she has to do is stand by her statement. She has nothing to lose. If, however, Obama continues his swirl around the porcelain political bowl, Hillary can cite the groundswell of dissatisfaction with Obama and "reluctantly" answer the call of duty to serve her country once again. Two years is a long time in politics. It may be that some new revelation gets leaked which puts the final nail in Team Hillary's political coffin. In the meantime, her unannouncement takes her out of the political limelight to a certain extent and lets her concentrate on damage control. I am still unmoved. Unless a few more skeletons fall out of Hillary's closet, I still believe her pillbox hat will be in the ring come 2012. You may quote me.