Hillary Clinton doesn't have to worry about whether she destroys Obama's chances in the general between now and the Democratic Convention because she doesn't care whether she is on the ballot as a Democrat. The Presidency will be hers in 2008 or it never will be, and she knows it.
This is why, if she and Penn fail to secure the nomination by legitimate, sneaky, underhanded or plain-old illegitimate ways, they won't mind. They won't care. They will pull a Lieberman and run Hillary as an 'Independent' Democrat.
I have no evidence to support this whatsoever! Until Randi Rhodes threw the idea out there the other day I had never even given it a moment's thought. I'm scared to write this on the off chance I'm wrong and Penn or some other Hillary supporter will read it, but... what if... would she?
Think about this. The triangulation experts.
They sow enough doubt in Obama to hurt him during the primary, but the doubt lingers. They see the nomination has failed and they jump ship, just in time to benefit from a two-pronged attack on Obama.
Hillary v Obama -- Obama wins.
McCain v Obama -- Obama wins.
Hillary v Obama AND McCain v Obama -- Hillary wins?
I know. It's insane. But until Randi Rhodes mentioned it, the thought had never crossed my mind. But looking back over the last month, ever since Super Tuesday when we all but knew she could not win... ever since then she has gone ugly. And why? Because she can still win enough votes? No, not really. Because she can win by super-delegate? Thin chances, but the chance exists, I suppose. But what if the goal is not to win, but to bloody Obama up and keep pulling in donations? What if she's just that kamikaze. It worked for Lieberman, didn't it? And in case you've forgotten, Bill Clinton won the presidency in 2 straight 3 candidate races.
So. Am I nuts? Judging by this calendar of independent candidate deadlines to get on the ballot, I would say we will know by early June at the latest.
Edited to change the title to a question and embolden the fact that I have no evidence of this whatsoever.
Edit #2 In the interest of further clarification, I am not an 'Obamabot'. I quote myself from the comments below:
I have no hatred for Hillary...
And until a month ago I thought she'd be a great, yes 'great' Dem President, even though I preferred Obama.
She, through her tactics of late, has called that into question in my opinion to the point where someone like Randi Rhodes plopping it into my brain touched a nerve.
So sue me.