'Hillary is not on the ticket'

Patrick Healy: "You know what I keep hearing privately from advisers to Hillary? They say, 'Why is it our job to blunt Palin's impact? Hillary is not on the ticket. Obama didn't choose her.' I don't think it's so much about resentment, it's an honest assessment that Hillary can only do so much in this regard."

"Hillary is not on the ticket." They're going to keep saying that and saying that, and after John McCain gets elected on Nov. 4, you're never going to hear the end of them saying it: "Hillary was not on the ticket." Then we'll spend the next four years waiting for Hillary to run again, and any Democrat who even thinks about challenging her will be demonized.

And forget about Obama after Nov. 4. The Democrats shoot their wounded. For better or worse, Republicans operate by the "it's his turn" principle, whereas Democrats are always about the "fresh new face." As Howard Dean showed, you've got exactly one chance to be the "fresh new face" with the Democrats, and once you blow that, you're through.

So McCain wins this year, the economic collapse grows increasingly worse, the entitlement crisis gets punted a few yards downfield, and the stage is all set for Hillary's big comeback in 2012. She'll be really inevitable next time around.