Hillary Will Win Huge Leverage in Narrow Defeat

It doesn’t look like Hillary Clinton will be the Dem nominee this year, but she “may gain more leverage from losing than almost any other failed presidential candidate,” says Michael Tackett in a Chicago Tribune piece about what’s in store for the second-place finisher. Assuming she is a “vigorous campaigner” for Obama in the fall and repairs rifts, she'll soon look more like Ted Kennedy than John Kerry.

Not only that, but unlike the powerful Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, who both found their stature increased by a presidential bid, Clinton is a historic candidate who has built a “potent” female base, and will find herself holding a lot of cards as she travels back to the Senate. If Obama loses, she might even end up the Dem standard-bearer under a John McCain administration. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)