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Hillary is waiting in the wings

Impish senator could still win the election

By Britt Combs | The McDowell News

Published: September 23, 2008

With nearly everyone convince that either John McCain or Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton is waiting in the wings and acting strangely calm.
She has been paying lip service to Obama's candidacy, saying he would be "better" for America, much as her luke-warm endorsement of John Kerry was self-serving in setting herself up for the 2008 nomination. Not wanting to have to challenge an incumbent from her own party in the primaries, she benefited by having Bush win his reelection.
There are those who say that she is biding her time and plotting her triumph of the will in 2012. I disagree. She has always been self-conscious about her appearance, and she is not aging gracefully. Botox can only do so much, and she long ago traded facial sagging for facial paralysis. She is aging quickly now, and she has to be aware that appearance is the main attribute Americans look for in a candidate.
There are those pundits who say that she is glad to not have the nomination given the looming financial crisis. The next president is dead in the water, they say, and Hillary can come to the rescue in 2012. That's nonsense.
They say that every election cycle, that the next president is doomed by the looming crisis. It never turns out to be true. There is always a market panic before a presidential election (not to say this crisis isn't serious, because it most certainly is very serious indeed).
Hillary would absolutely relish the opportunity to not only seize power but to do so at the height of a crisis. What could be more intoxicating than to be granted emergency powers of the most sweeping kind? She could declare martial law if she felt like it.
No, she is all done biding her time. She still has not forgiven the American people for nominating Barack Obama, and if I know my Hillary, she is plotting sweet revenge.
But, you ask, how can she win? She lost the nomination, you cry. Why, she's not even on the ballot, you inveigh. What nonsense is this? you demand.
Presidents are elected by the Electoral College. It is a system agreed to by the states when they ratified the Constitution. Electors are appointed by whatever means the legislatures choose. Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of representatives they get in Congress, both House and Senate and three represent Washington D.C.
What trips most folks up is the myth that electors are bound to vote a certain way. They are not and cannot be, anymore than a congressman is bound in how he votes. By the Constitution, they vote however they dang please.
Good gracious, Combs, you say, are you suggesting she is lobbying the electors to vote for her? Why, you are stretching the limit our credulity to its very breaking point!
No, dear reader, indeed I am not suggesting that.
The wonderful thing about the Electoral College is that they total to an even number. There are 538 of them.
MSNBC's Chuck Todd did a fabulous report last week in which he demonstrated about 12 different ways the election could wind up in a tie, given the states that are currently up for grabs according to pollsters.
In the event of a tie, the election goes to the House of Representatives. Here's the really interesting bit:
The House is made up of 435 members, only about 200 of whom are Republicans. The Democrats have at least 232 members, accounting for a few vacancies. That gives them a 32-vote advantage.
To be elected president in the House would require 218 votes. Fourteen Democrats could hold out for Obama – there are probably that many Democrats in the House who genuinely fear Hillary – and she could still win. How many Republicans would cross the aisle to vote for her? Hold on, now, at least a few. John McCain is openly hated by a good part of the Republican Party, Palin or no Palin. Many have never forgiven him for the nasty things he said about Baptists when he was criticizing Bob Jones University back in 2000.
Our chickens are coming home to roost. She could win, and I can guarantee you she is lobbying hard, one to make sure the election ends in a tie, and two to know how many votes she can count on in the House, and how she can tip the scales.
When that day comes, she will dust off her list of all the people who ever made her mad or stood in her way. Future historians will call the first night of her presidency "the night of the long knives."