Exeunt the Clintons?

I think Newsweek guy Jon Alter has it just about right:

Hillary has only one shot—for Obama to trip up so badly that he disqualifies himself. Nothing in the last 14 months suggests he will.

But imagine if, instead of waiting to be marginalized or forced out, Hillary decided to defy the stereotype we have of her family? Imagine if she drew a distinction between "never quit" as it applies to fighting Kenneth Starr and the Republicans on the one hand, and fellow Democrats on the other? Imagine if she had, well, the imagination for a breathtaking act of political theater that would make her seem the epitome of grace and class and party unity, setting herself up perfectly for 2012 if Obama loses?

I don't know if I'm quite as certain as Alter that Hillary can't pull off a victory without the aid of an Obama slip-up... big wins in Ohio and Texas would light a fire underneath her operation and the media (for once) would be on her side with its "comeback kid" narrative. It'd be a different world: Clinton would be headed into a brokered convention with a full head of steam.

But if she does decide that it's over, I agree that this would be the perfect time for a dramatic exit. Whatever rifts in the Democratic Party her campaign has caused and whatever animosities she has incurred would vanish immediately.