Something's fishy about this whole thing. Hillary may be many things, but she's no dummy, and she can count as well as the rest of us. She knows she hasn't got the numbers. But she's awfully slow to concede, and her people are clearly in a negotiating mode. Why? What does she want?

I read Robert Novak's column today, where he says that Hillary and her supporters really don't think Obama is ready to be president. I've always believed that, but it surprises me how many Democrats share my hesitation about Obama.

I'm also suspicious about how the Clintons are acting. Their behavior seems a little strange, but it makes sense if you speculate that the Clintons have something on Obama that they couldn't release themselves. After all, the polls showed that any time the Clintons played hard against Obama, they wound up getting more backlash than bang for their buck. Maybe they were hoping that the media would discover this all independently, so that the Clintons couldn't be blamed. But the media hasn't discovered it yet, probably because they're too busy swooning over a good speech.

• My suspicion would explain why Hillary stayed around as long as she did.
• It would explain why Bill Clinton repeatedly lashed out at reporters to go after Obama, urging them to do more research on Obama.
• The GOP has also been surprisingly low-key so far about Obama. You wonder if they were hoping that the Hillary Team would spread the dirt, so that the GOP wouldn't be blamed. (Leaving the GOP and the Clintons in a standoff, each hoping the other would do the dirty work and take the fall for it.)

It's pure speculation, of course. I have utterly no proof. But the Clintons' behavior seems strange to me, and I'm not yet willing to blame it all on stubbornness or vanity.

In the days following the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a police officer was heralded for his bravery in discovering and subsequently disarming a bomb that was set under the bus full of Israeli (I believe) athletes on their way to LAX.  A few days later, it was discovered that the police officer had set the bomb hoping to benefit from being the one to find and diffuse it.  Hillary and her campaign surrogates remind me of that police officer...setting a trap so that she can be on hand to capitalize when she "saves the day".  I think it's often referred to as "Munchausen Syndrome".  It would be maddening if it wasn't so sad.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -Ronald Reagan

Is it not clear to anyone else, Hillary's plan is to "stay alive" just enough to be the only choice the DNC will turn to when/if Obama implodes? "All Good Things Come to He (she) Who Waits" Proverbs.

I suspect the Hillary campaign has much on Obama and the RNC has even more. You don't rise as fast as Obama has risen in the wall corruption of Chicago and Illinois politics without spending time doing things not meant for the light of day?

Has he been like Hillary and watched what she said and did from birth knowing she was going to run for president (except that pesky husband as the unwanted loose cannon but he has put her where she is today)? I really doubt it. Look no further than his choice of the church he has been a member of for 20 years. If he KNEW he would someday run for national office 20 years ago he would have selected the most moderate mixed race membership "say nothing important (or important)" from the pulpit church in Chicago" church and then be a quiet non-controversial but "friend to all" member. A quick check of any three of his long-time political "back room friends" would disqualify a mere mortal candidate. But anyone who can appear with a superimposed halo on his head on the cover of a national magazine is NOT mere mortal.

Why does the media have so little in their files on Obama in his "formative" years? Perhaps a few do. With 90%+ of the media being far left, anything like that plus all copies has been given to him long ago. But the real reason is probably he literally came out of nowhere the last five years. He has no "track record" to speak of. Nothing controversial as there is nothing there to be "controversial" about. With most of his political life until the last five years spent at the city council level of politics, there wouldn't be much on file. How often do you see even a reporter from a tiny readership local weekly newspaper bother to cover events like city council meetings? Almost never. He MAY have said something during those years that would haunt him today if made public but "the tree fell in the forest but there was no one there to hear it". It would be as if a councilperson in my small town suddenly ran for national office and the media had to write a biography on him or her. Most likely even local media would have almost nothing in their files. They'd have to interview the person to write the first story. It would be as if the candidate had just arrived for Mars.

About all you have to make any evaluation of Obama on is his voting record. Well, that's all been released and it didn't even generate a yawn among millions of voters. He has a very low-key voting record where he never went out on a limb on anything. His becoming a U.S. senator was probably by accident with the odds-on to win Republican candidate didn't run at the last minute (sorry, I don't remember why). He suddenly had fiery Alan Keyes for the voters to knee jerk vote against. Since then plus in his time in Chicago and Illinois politics he has sponsored or started almost nothing. He was just "there" and, when the opportunity arose, gave truly messianic speeches saying nothing new nor controversial but holding his audience spellbound. His one gift that has propelled him to where he is today is his skills of oration that is clearly the best of any politician since mass audio communications became common. Yes, even better than "Bill". There is no contest. No one in history comes within miles of his ability to hold a crowd's attention for as long as he like. The word "messianic" you keep hearing over and over in describing his public speaking skills. He could read pages from a phone book for hours and end to wild cheers and applause. His solid far left voting record has been said once by the media then not said again. Republican attempts to make it an issue will purposely be ignored. For good reason. If most voters were exposed to even a small fraction of the laws his "yes" vote has helped to pass, they would be appalled and realize little separates him from the beliefs of Lenin, Castro and every other communist or hard left socialist. Whatever happens his place in hiostry as the world's best public orator in modern history is secure. "It's not what you say, it's how you say it". Contrast his soothing assuring words to the mean sounding shrill words Hillary is known for even in ordering brekfast at Denny's. No comparison. But then wouldn't you develop such a tone married to an uncontrollable Bill Clinton. I almost feel sorry for her! Almost.

It does not matter! It is so true that most people care not "what is said but how it is said". As Joseph Goebbels famously said "propaganda is not propaganda if it recognized as such".

As stealth as his life has been, I believe the "smoking gun" is being held by either Bill Clinton or the RNC. It will be "revealed" at the appropriate moment (or not at all). If revealed by Bill it will be the always talked about "October Surprise" with the actual date actually being just days before it will legally be too late to have Hillary Clinton on ballots as the Democratic candidate. If the "smoking gun" is held by the RNC, depending on what it is, it will either not be released at all or just days before the election. Far too late to change the Democratic candidate.

Hillary is and will be mildly showing support for Obama while hoping that "smoking gun" arrives to save her. When it does, she will be ready as will be all of her supporters. She will NOT allow her campaign to shrivel to where any other candidate (like Al Gore) is there for the party to turn to.

Don't expect Obama to make any verbal gaffs in the future. "They" are running his campaign so tightly that from today forward he will say nothing other than small talk that doesn't come from a teleprompter. Yes, his wife is his "loose cannon" but literally hundreds of DNC staff members will be assigned to wall her in and always be ready for "damage control" if she does escape the ten foot high razor wire surrounded sound proof room they figuratively have her in now.

For Hillary it is now "stay calm, stay visible and stay ready and then just wait". She not out of the race and won't be until the next president is sworn into office next January.