It seems that everyone is asking the same question. Why would Hillary Clinton, who claims to have undying devotion to her party, stay in a race that she is destined to lose? After all, the longer she stays in the race and the longer it takes to “officially” declare a winner of the Democratic nomination, the longer the Democratic Party will remain divided on the race and gender issue, not to mention all the other issues that Hillary and Obama disagree on.

So the question with the obvious answer is: Is Hillary Clinton’s remaining in the 2008 race for the Democratic nomination helping her party? I think not. But is it helping her? That’s another story.

Hillary declared today in a conference call with Senator Obama that she would be interested in being Obama’s running mate. Obama, who has previously denied that he has even begun considering a running mate, has long been speculated to be opposed to such a union. But with everyone saying that his chances of winning are scarce without, Hillary has more leverage to ask for such a position. And with Hillary still officially in the race and taking Obama’s attention away from John McCain, what better way to get rid of “Hillary problem” than to make her a Vice-Presidential nominee? And does Hillary realize this? You bet. Would she have realized this even if her eager campaign support had not advised her of this? You bet. Hillary is not stupid.

So many people might accuse Hillary of not having this undying devotion to her party if she is willing to wreck its potential success by remaining in a race that she cannot possibly win in order to achieve her own political agenda of reentering the White House. But is that true? Again, probably not. Hillary knows, like I know and like many intelligent Americans know, that Obama does need her to win. He might as well throw in the towel just like she is about to do and let McCain become the President Elect tonight if the two don’t join forces.

Ahh, but you argue that Hillary will not settle for second best. She’s too good for that, and it doesn’t make sense that she would settle for being the Vice-Presidential nominee to Senator Obama, her nemesis of over a year and a half. I wholeheartedly agree. Let’s face it. We have not seen the last of Hillary Clinton, whether she is Vice-President, Secretary of State, or remains a Senator. And if Obama wins the presidency, which Hillary is counting on for her next move, then when Obama’s term runs out in 2016, assuming he wins a second term, then Hillary will have an additional eight years of exposure for people to love her even more than they do now. She is also counting on people continuing to love her.