Among the least attractive characteristics of the Clintons (both she and he) is what may be charitably described as their chronic disingenuousness.
To wit, they resort to spin and subterfuge that's too clever by half, even when the truth would do them no harm. The meaning of "is" always seems to depend on what the meaning of "is" is at any given moment in time.
Just like her Arkansas accent comes and goes.
Which brings us to Hillary's recent magical mystery tour, replete with an orgy of copious, self-serving publicity that would make a Kardashian blush. The centerpiece of this effort has been her repeated insistence, that, by gosh, she just hasn't decided yet if she's going to run for president.
But of course she's running for president. Would Bonnie and Clyde walk by a bank without at least attempting to rob it? Of course not.
If she's not running for president, her recent behavior makes absolutely no sense.
She doesn't need to make money by hawking a book. After all, she and Bill now have more dough than they or Chelsea could spend in five lifetimes, no matter how many houses (note the plural) they buy.
She certainly doesn't need a book tour to bolster her celebrity. And it's rather doubtful that she has any realistic ambition to win a Pulitzer Prize with her weighty tome.
So that brings us to the inevitable conclusion that all of this is but a prelude to 2016.
The Ready for Hillary crowd might say: So what? Why should she telegraph her intentions now and become a target for the vast right-wing conspiracy?
As Hillary might put it (with a hearty thump on the desk), at this point, what difference does it make?
Well, for one thing, her coy routine isn't going to keep her from being fired upon by conservatives. They've never stopped.
However, what it does do is remind many voters how allergic the Clintons are to candor.
So six months or a year from now, when Hillary finally admits that, well, by golly, she is going to run for president after all, many people will realize that, once again, they have been taken in by Clintonian double-speak.
Of course, that last statement presupposes that anyone in America actually believes that Hillary Clinton isn't running for president.
Perhaps that depends on what the meaning of "isn't" is.
Meanwhile, refusing to admit what voters already know just reminds them that, for the Clintons, the truth is always a movable feast.
------------v------------
Rich Shumate is editor of Chickenfriedpolitics.com. This essay originally appeared on his site.
Editorial on 07/07/2014