When thinking of staunch Clinton supporters, Lanny Davis is one of the first names that comes to mind.  In his writings and media appearances the former White House Special Counsel has long been a friend, proponent and defender of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

During the primaries Davis functioned as strategist, spokesman and fundraiser for Hillary's campaign.  But with at least two months to go (considerably longer if Obama somehow gets elected) before Hillary can officially launch her next presidential run -- and while faux campaigning for the Democrat candidate will be bogging down their agenda during the hiatus -- soft-spoken, politically correct Lanny Davis is, once again, thrust into the role of Chief Surrogate Clinton Campaigner.

Along with other notable Hillary supporters (like Geraldine Ferraro and Juan Williams) Davis has, of late, been one of the fairest and most balanced political analysts to appear regularly on the Fox Network's pundit panels.  As a staunch Hillary critic it has not been at all disturbing to hear Davis and company compare the media's harsh treatment of Sarah Palin to the Obama favoritism that contributed to the destruction of their own candidate's White House dream. 

In a recent Washinton Times column Lanny Davis went out of his way to praise -- albeit somewhat faintly -- Governor Palin for making "a helluva speech" at the GOP Convention and for performing well in her first nationally-televised appearance despite extreme media pressure.

But as part of the central theme of that column, Lanny Davis also tells a personal story about John McCain and of the admiration that he has acquired for the Republican candidate since their first meeting a decade ago.  “This [John McCain] is a different type of politician. This is someone who says what he means and means what he says,” Davis writes. 

He further advocates for more McCain-like, principled campaigning from both parties' candidates and their respective surrogates.  Although he adds "I support Barack Obama -- strongly and passionately -- because I agree with him on the major issues facing the country and disagree strongly with most of Mr. McCain’s," Davis' personal character endorsement of John McCain overshadows any understandably partisan pronouncements in the piece and creates a doubt that an Obama victory is really what he wants.

While the theory that If there were no Hillary there would be no Sarah may be true, the theory's corollary is also true.  Win or lose, Governor Palin's run has and will do more to re-energize Hillary Clinton's ambitions and her supporters' continued loyalty than any other single factor that this too-long campaign cycle has produced.

The Obama Campaign's recent relegation to second place in the battle for headlines has created a perfect moment in which to perpetuate the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.  Everyone from Lanny Davis to the great Amtrak commuter Joe Biden ("Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.  I mean that sincerely. She is first rate. So lets get that straight.") are holding onto their Hillary Express tickets.

"Those styrofoam Greek columns," as Sarah Palin calls them, may not have been "hauled back to some studio lot" after all. Instead, they may have been shipped on the aforementioned train to Chappaqua, New York.

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