Hillary's lifeline

Evidently President Barack Obama has given Vice President Joe Biden the green light to seek the Democratic nomination for president.

The vice president’s entry into the race would complicate life for Hillary Clinton but may not hurt her much. Hillary has fallen so far that in a two-way race against a credible opponent, she already may be toast.

At this writing, Ms. Clinton’s sole credible opponent is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. an aging socialist who nonetheless has a charming authenticity about him that is reminiscent of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., who shocked the political world in 1968 when he almost upset President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary.

That prompted LBJ to drop out of the race and Robert F. Kennedy to get into it.

Had Sirhan Sirhan not gunned him down, Bobby Kennedy probably would have out-muscled Vice President Hubert Humphrey — a good man who deserved better cards than fate dealt him that year — for the nomination.

Joe Biden is no Bobby Kennedy. He’s a dirty old man who puts his hands on women in public and likes to skinny dip in front of female Secret Service agents assigned to guard him.

(The news media doesn’t make much of this, but Hillary surely shall.)

And Slow Joe is slow. This campaign may be no better than his hapless White House runs in 1988 and 2008. If the effect of a Biden candidacy is to split the anti-Clinton vote, it could be the lifeline Hillary needs. She’s got two advantages the guys don’t.

Hillary is much less popular among blacks than is President Obama, but she’s the only one of the old rich white Democrats running this time who sparks any enthusiasm among them at all. And she has in her camp the aging feminists for whom the only thing that matters is First. Woman. President.

Hillary’s advantages disappear if the FBI indicts her for felony breach of security. Director James Comey is said to be an honest man. We’ll see. Even if he isn’t, it could be hard not to indict Hillary, because former CIA Directors John Deutch and David Petraeus, and former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger — prominent Democrats all — were indicted for fewer, much less harmful breaches of security.

It would be a blessing for Democrats if Director Comey delivers the coup de grace. When the only choices are between very, very bad and much, much worse, there’s a tendency to do nothing. Which could appear attractive, because Hillary might not have much further to fall. Democrats today are so depraved there might not be a lie she could tell or law she could break that would cause support for her to plummet much below where it is now. But for someone so far underwater, just a little more slippage spells doom.

More slippage is inevitable. Democrats will debate. Sen. Sanders will hammer Hillary on ethics, former Virginia Sen. James Webb will hammer her on policy. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will look for opportunities to take off his shirt, and to say he’s a lifelong Democrat. (All the others, including Hillary, were Republicans at one time or another.) Her opponents will note Hillary Clinton is the only presidential candidate in either party who voted to authorize the war in Iraq.

The State Department will release more of Hillary’s emails, which likely will reveal more security breaches. The Benghazi committee will hold hearings. A movie slated for release in January will remind Americans of what Benghazi was all about.

A woman smarter than Hillary Clinton would look at the wall, see the writing on it, drop out of the race, surrender her security clearance, spend her ill-gotten gains. I doubt Ms. Clinton’s greed and lust for power will permit her to do that.

Because her conduct is indefensible, Hillary can prevail only by dirtying up her opponents. For Republicans, this is the time to buy popcorn — lots and lots of popcorn. The fun is just beginning.

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.