Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

...at the apparent decline and fall of the house of Clinton.

Within the past few months, Hillary Clinton traded at a 50% probability of being our next president on internet betting site intrade.com.

As I write this, she's trading around 18%.

I have to say that even seeing her picture makes me shudder, in part because I know that she stands for everything that hasn't made American great and in part because she somehow reminds me of a short-haired Cruella DeVille:

I believe that Obama's policy positions are probably worse than Hillary's in most areas, but she is so remarkably repellent that it amazes me to see even naive single women vote for her. While all politicians, especially at that level, have a thirst for power, her desire to give us Hillary-world, because she just knows better, causes her to be shrill, insincere, and utterly unappealing to anyone who is actually paying attention.

I never liked Bill Clinton, but he's turned into a particularly large negative in this campaign. His remarks in South Carolina were probably the tipping point in moving black voters from supporting the wife of "the first black president" to supporting the actual black candidate. If Hillary goes down in flames, something which appears more possible now than ever before, people will look back on it for a long time wondering if Bill was the arsonist.

I am not predicting that Hillary will fail, as the Clinton's are masters of politics, and of dirty tricks at a level that Obama has never experienced. But with Obama's current momentum and with the Democrats' method of splitting delegates rather than winner-takes-all within a state, Hillary is going to need to do particularly well in Texas and Ohio, and then in Pennsylvania. It's not out of the question that we'll see Hillary concede in early April, but again I caution that the Clinton's are as power-mad a family as we have seen since the Kennedys, and they probably won't give up until it becomes clear that even dirty tricks or legal shenanigans won't work. (For example, they'll probably try to force the Democratic Party to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan while recognizing the results of those votes which were expressly un-sanctioned by the party because they moved their primary dates up too early.)

I actually think Obama would be a worse president than Hillary, but not by a lot. And at least, if a Democrat does win, he's prettier than she is and he doesn't have that fake shriek of a laugh which makes me worry that my scotch glass is going to shatter.

If the House of Clinton falls in the next two months, all I'll say is "good riddance" to your bald-faced ambition to enforce a Nanny State on us. Please get divorced, get on with your lives, and, as best your egos will allow, shut your mouths.

One thing I will predict: If Hillary loses, she'll say that the country wasn't ready for a woman. If Obama loses, he'll say the country wasn't ready for a black man. They'll both be wrong, but they'll be consistent with the type of identity politics which has typified the Democratic Party for a generation.