by Vengrai Parthasarathy

Created on: September 07, 2008   Last Updated: September 09, 2008

Hillary is being written off because she lost the Primary to Obama and was passed over for the Veep post. Is she a spent force?
The answer should be a resounding 'No'. Here is why.

First, the pedigree. She is Bill's wife, not that by itself it is a scoring point but it does mean exposure and scope for close association with one of the most brilliant minds. Both of them are tenacious and go after what they want, hammer and tongs.As Senator,

Hillary has done enough to claim experience in the way things work in Washington, and in the White House..

Second, she has terrific influence over women voters and blue-collar gentry. Seventeen million votes were garnered by her; no mean achievement. In fact she should have been the automatic choice for Veep but Obama had other ideas,mainly because of Hillary's independent streak. She may have turned out to be a prickly partner
specially with Bill hovering in the background..

Third, Hillary can still be in the run if she plays her cards carefully. She should go the whole hog campaigning for Obama and take the sheen out of Palin. Palin it is who has given new traction to McCain and Obama would do well to use Hillary to give her counter-punches.Palin has given speeches but has not had any opportunity to be grilled by the media.She is being shielded from exposure to the media on one-to-one format.

Why should Hillary, (still licking her wounds after her defeat), do anything like that for Obama? She will stand to benefit by entering into a tacit agreement with Obama for her nomination as Veep in 2012 (of course with Biden's complicity).

The result of all this would be:

a) Obama will most likely win and would have put paid Palin's
becoming the First woman Veep..
b) Hillary can get nominated for Veep in 2012.
c) She can be in the running for President in 1916, because Obama
would have completed his second term.She can glide into the President's chair with ease.
d) If it works out like that, Hillary would be the first woman Veep/President, and not Palin.

All this can be explained away as very IFFY.The only alternative left for Hillary would be to be tepid/lukewarm in campaigning for Obama in the hope of running for Presidency in 2012.
By that time (if McCain wins in 2008), Palin would have entrenched herself and gathered enough credentials to run for President.And Hillary will have an uphill task, having alienated Obama's fans.

This is nothing more than an exercise in speculation.We will be face to face with reality in November this year.

Learn more about this author, Vengrai Parthasarathy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.