Hillary and her body bags are plotting a comeback

On the Sunday and Monday before Super Tuesday, March 3, two of the more viable presidential candidates in the Democratic field, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, unexpectedly dropped out of the race and threw their support to the cognitively challenged Joe Biden.

To make this happen someone had to call Buttigieg and Klobuchar. The question the major media have been reluctant to ask is: Who made the call?

That call had to be persuasive and almost assuredly came from on high, likely with some sort of quid pro quo attached.

There was no natural reason for either candidate to drop out the day before a multi-state primary, all the preparations for which had already been made and paid for.

Buttigieg's withdrawal was particularly curious. He had more or less won the Iowa caucus and came within a hair of winning in New Hampshire. He came in third in Nevada and fourth in South Carolina, states from which he expected little.

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Tom Steyer, who spent scores of millions to edge out Buttigieg for third place in South Carolina, had just dropped out.

Then too, Mike Bloomberg's debate performances should have assured Buttigieg that Farmer Mike was unelectable. Had Buttigieg held off until Super Tuesday, the primary results would have confirmed his suspicions.

In sum, had Buttigieg waited just two days he would almost assuredly have found himself behind only the increasingly feeble Biden as the anti-Sanders candidate of choice.

But that was not to be. The real Barack Obama called "the gay Barack Obama." The New York Times admitted as much but buried what should have been the lead deep in an article on Buttigieg's withdrawal.

"Mr. Buttigieg talked with Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama on Sunday night, according to a Democratic official familiar with the conversations," reported the Times matter-of-factly in the sixth paragraph.

According to the reporters, Obama persuaded Buttigieg that by supporting Biden he could help create "a more formidable centrist challenge to Mr. Sanders' progressive movement."

Obama's seeming abandonment of the progressive movement should have been as big a news item as his call to Buttigieg. For eight years Obama had worked overtime to establish his progressive bona fides.

To be sure, not everyone on the left took Obama seriously. Among the more disrespectful was radical black author and professor Cornel West.

After Obama's election, West started calling out Obama publicly for his "centrist, neoliberalist policy." Obama was furious.

In spotting West at an event in 2010, Obama reportedly came down to West's seat and hissed within earshot of others, "I'm not progressive? What kind of sh** is this?"

Obama is progressive. He was just politician enough to cloak his radicalism in happy talk. For all his flaws, Bernie Sanders was much too honest for him and other Democratic power brokers, and that honesty risked their control of Washington.

No one serious expects Biden to make it to January 2021. The question remains as to who gets to call the shots when Biden falters. In a party that plays by the rules, that could have been Mayor Pete.

But rules are for Republicans, and here is where the game gets interesting. Although Obama played a key role in the coup to oust Buttigieg, he has always been something of a front man. He lacks the chops to see the coup through to its completion.

The Clintons, Hillary especially, have those chops in spades. Filmmaker Joel Gilbert has made the persuasive case that Hillary is lurking in the shadows ready to pounce.

Gilbert cites a conveniently timed, much praised four-part documentary series on Hulu called "Hillary." As Gilbert also notes, it was Hillary who helped the barely competent DNC Chairman Tom Perez get his job.

It was Hillary too who hired Fusion GPS to deep-six President Trump and would happily do oppo research on whoever gets in her way, Mayor Pete included.

Already a female-heavy bandwagon is rolling to get Biden to name Hillary as his VP candidate. If Biden picks her, he had better hire a food taster as well. The Clintons play hardball.

There are many who think Obama has wife Michelle lined up to escort Biden to the White House. Obama may be thinking that same way himself.

But while he is thinking and holding meetings and making phone calls, Hillary will be preparing the body bags.

My money is on the lady with the body bags.

Jack Cashill's forthcoming book, "Unmasking Obama: The Fight to Tell the True Story of a Failed Presidency," is available for pre-order on Amazon.