Whither Hillary?

I’m always overly pensive at the end of the semester. The weather even obliged.  It was just cloudy and chilly enough to keep me inside at my desk.  I finished my last lecture today and was hard-pressed to find good news for my students other than it would all be over shortly.  There’s a certain melancholy that comes with all endings.  It leaves a me with a sense of wistful calm.

In case you haven’t been watching the economy, it’s not good.  The labor statistics that came out today were beyond grim.  Even President Bush has decided that something has to be done about the auto companies if just to stymie job loss for the time being.  Speaker-of the-House Pelosi is even open now to using the green incentives money set aside for the Detroit three ( no longer worthy of being framed the BIG three anymore) to go after fuel efficient cars with less impact on the environment.  This entire day seemed to be wrapped up in one big moment of quiet resolution. 

I poured some wine and decided tonight’s newscast for the day would be News Hour with Jim Lerher.  The end of the broadcast was a conversation that was billed this way:

Brooks and Marcus
Analysts David Brooks and Ruth Marcus weigh in on the news of the week, including the return of auto executives to Capitol Hill.

The conversation did include the inevitability of something for the auto executives as well as this week’s discussion of Team Obama and the future of his ‘rivals’.  Ruth Marcus took some time to discuss Hillary’s acceptance of SOS and was generally complimentary.  Her only question was that of potential Big Dawg drama.  Then, magically, some analysis caught me by surprise.  She asked if any one had noticed how generally sad Hillary had looked on Monday while accepting SOS besides her?  I think both Jim Lerher and David Brooks were also surprised by the comment, but after some reflection agreed.  Yes she did look a little wistful with a hint of quiet resolution.  Ruth said that she decided to follow-up later with a ‘close friend’ of Hillary about the observation.  (Yes, that well known journalistic  teaser yet again, she had an ‘unnamed’ source.)  Ruth said the friend was well acquainted with the tinge of melancholia and that it was the result of Hillary knowing “her political career is over”.  

That bit of self-reflection hit me on a real basic level.  It sounded quite believable, but I was glad when David Brooks cracked a joke about the Clintons always managing to come back when you least expect them.   But know I’m thinking again and I’m still coming back to this gut feeling that she probably has got that right but I’m still not sure why I feel that way, let alone, why she might feel that way.

I have to say, I’m feeling a little blue about the idea of not seeing Hillary on a campaign trail again.   Maybe it’s just the time of year, or the weather, or this glass of red wine.  Maybe you can convince me that one shouldn’t trust what’s been said by a reporter’s unnamed source at the end of a semester.