I think her back up plan of choice is to run against McCain in 2012, should Obama lose, and she's doing everything she can to ensure that he does... everything, that is, so long as it doesn't conflict with or endanger with her back-up back-up plan of running for governor of New York.

Might not be such an easy fight, rumor has it Mayor Mike may be interested in taking up residence in the Governor's Mansion as well.

I find it unfathomable that Hillary Clinton would plot an ambitious future political path.

Maybe. Much as I have an exceedingly low opinion of Hillary, I don't buy the 2012 thing. Surely even Hillary Clinton realizes that she'd be 66 on Election Day in 2012, and that's on the old side even for men. If she can't win now, she won't win in four years, especially in a Democratic Party that does not reward those who finished second last time. (Anymore; time was Democrats loved a loser. See Stevenson, Adlai and Bryan, William Jennings. More recently, second-place try-agains Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, and John Edwards have not won the nomination.)

However, I wonder whether New Yorkers might see a failed White House bid turned gubernatorial run as a sort of condescension, like Hillary deigns to allow New Yorkers the privilege of letting her stay in New York. Sort of a Nixon in 1962 kind of thing. On the plus side, for Hillary that is, a gubernatorial run would allow Hillary to suck tens of millions of dollars out of other Democrats' campaigns nationwide during a critical midterm election. I'm sure Hillary would hate to pass up a chance to cost Democrats a few more seats in Congress by lining her own campaign coffers -- like she did in 2006.

I think she did quite well against/with O'Reilly. Very well actually.

I'm with the 2012'ers.  Even if Obama wins, he may not be popular in 2012 and Clinton might try a Ted Kennedy v. Jimmy Carter move.  (That's not a dig at Obama -- I think the next president will have to either make some very unpouplar decisions or will not have the greatest short-term record thanks to the legacy our current leader will be leaving).  

I think Hillary's back-up plan is to marry NYS Governor David Patterson, so that when the date of the gubernatorial election rolls around, she'll be the most experienced candidate in the race.

I think the next president has a very high chance of being a one-term president - America's economic and military dominance will continue to erode, the oil price will continue to rise, and the political balancing act between pandering to Americans and making the tough decisions necessary to wean Americans off their massive consumption of fossil fuels will be extraordinarily challenging. Deja vu anyone?

I sure hope so.  In fact, I hope that right now someone high up in New York politics is telling Hillary that every day she stays in this race and hurts the Democratic Party's nominee she hurts her own standing in the party and her right to run for governor with the party's support.  I hope she goes down in a ball of flames.  I hope President Obama uses the party machinery to marginalize her as punishment for her insolence.  He won't but I can HOPE.

Run in 2012?  Are you serious?  If Obama is nominated and loses, don't you think that fingers will point back to Billary's over-inflated ego and their having helped McCain win in the first place?   In fact, about 3 million racist elderly people will have died of old age between now and 2012, giving Obama (who will still be black) another chance at the White House.

Oh yeah, and don't put it past Hill to run against President Obama in a 2012 primary.  She will be just about through contesting the 2008 nomination by then.

This is probably a stupid question, but does anybody have any theories as to why being a Senator isn't good enough for Hillary?  There's only 100 of them in the country, it's a position that sits at the pinnacle of society, for crissakes.  She gets all the social and economic advantages and she'll never have to run a serious race with NY's 2:1 Democratic advantage.  Everybody who had spent their careers working in NY politics stepped aside when she decided she wanted the seat.  What's not to like?

kalcorn, I agree.