I get confused when I read the Democrat-hating press: Is Hillary Clinton so evil that it's just a matter of time before she's Global Dictator for Life (see, e.g., William Safire's now-laughable prediction of her rise from the undead at a brokered Democratic convention)? Or does fate regularly thwart her schemes while she howls, "Curses! Foiled again"? Susan Estrich -- commentator for Fox News and NewsMax, even though she insists she's a Democrat (no, really) -- apparently believes the latter:

IImagine that Howard Dean's December had come in the fall instead. Ideological warfare, tearing the party apart, attacking the Clintons, the Democratic Leadership Council -- what could have been better for Hillary? Let Dean take the party to defeat, and she could've been the savior, rising from the rubble to unite the defeated Democrats. Who could deny her the nomination four years later?

Maybe that's what she was thinking...

If Kerry wins [with John Edwards as his running mate], Hillary Clinton can't run for president for eight more years. And then it would be the 58-year-old vice president's turn, maybe for the next eight. That makes 16. That's it....

Zounds! Why didn't Hillary's good friend Satan warn her?

But there's still a chance if Kerry loses ... no?

Kerry may not be Hillary's biggest problem. John Edwards is the real threat. He's the other half of most Democrats' dream tickets, and by any reckoning, the obvious next nominee....

Oh, right. Of course! Edwards has to be the 2008 nominee if Kerry loses -- in the proud tradition of ticket-toppers Ed Muskie, Sargent Shriver, Geraldine Ferraro, Jack Kemp, and Joe Lieberman.