Where's Hillary?

I don't know if you've noticed but Hillary is nowhere to be found. I haven't seen her on the news, on any news shows, or quoted in the newspaper as far back as I can remember. One would expect in light of the recent uprising in Iran, a major and historic moment, the secretary of state would have weighed in with her opinion on the matter. There are two possibilities, either the administration is controlling the situation and limiting her exposure so she doesn't outshine Obama. I think this is unlikely as I doubt she would be quieted by her previous foe. More likely she is purposely remaining under the radar screen. But why?

I have no doubt that Hillary is still seething from the primary battle and feels she should have been the nominee. She must be second guessing her campaign constantly since she knows she was the more qualified candidate. She was given the position of secretary of state but then all these special envoys were appointed to deal with specific regions. An envoy to the middle east (Mitchell), an envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan (Holbrooke), an envoy to Sudan (Gration), an envoy to Iraq (Hill), etc. All the hot spots were taken by appointed envoys. So what's left for Hill? Not much, just a very sore, frustrated, vengeful woman.

I think she has every intention to run against Obama in the 2012 primary. If she appeared on the news she would have to follow the party line and back up all of Obama's decisions and policies. She doesn't want to be seen doing this as this would negate her ability to criticize his policies in the next primary. She is waiting for the perfect time to resign her position and this will likely be in some response to an Obama position that she will say she cannot support. This recent episode was perfect since Obama did not immediately support the uprising in Iran. Hillary could have stepped in and said I support the freedom fighters and stood against Obama. This makes her look to be the candidate who supports democracy in a theocratic regime while Obama looks to be the guy who wants to schmooze with the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad.

The problem was it was too early. She has to wait for about another year until she makes her move. His approval numbers will continue to deteriorate over the next year while she is in the background with a low profile quietly building support. As his numbers go down there will be splintering within the democratic party. He will be on the liberal side and she will dominate the moderate wing. The liberal agenda will be seen as an absolute failure both domestically and with regards to foreign policy. There will be major defections from Obama supporters to the moderate wing of the party ie. Hillary. Her approval numbers will soar as the dems look for a less liberal representative. She is a very intelligent, calculating woman. I have no doubt we have not seen the end of the Clinton machine.