The Artful Dodger Lives

....and speaks:

Hillary Clinton may not run for president in 2008, said a source very close to the New York senator – her husband, Bill Clinton.

Responding to attacks by just-announced Republican Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro, who warns that Hillary plans to abandon New York to run for president, Bill Clinton said in a televised interview that his wife "is not a candidate for the White House," adding, "I don't know that she will be."

Mm-mm-mm, doesn't that reflexively slippery qualification bring back memories? Making an unaccustomed slip by giving an unequivocal statement - "My wife is not a candidate for the White House" - he instantly realizes the unequivocation and tosses in "I don't know that she will be." Ya gotta love that.

Of course, his initial comment wasn't as declarative as it looks. Of course Hillary "is not" a candidate for the White House - there aren't any candidates yet, not this far out. She wouldn't be making that announcement for another year and a half at least. So in that sense you could surmise that he realized that he hadn't covered the future base, as it were, and threw in the follow-up quip, which essentially tells his interviewer to not ask him about her electoral intentions.

Given that no interviewer will ever get a straight answer out of either of them, that's advice that wouldn't seem to be that novel.

But it sure would spoil us fiskers' fun.