CLAIM: 'Draft Hillary' movement part of vast right wing conspiracy...

◼ “If it is, in fact, a Hillary supporter, I would urge whoever is doing it to please stop. She is not going to run, and this effort only serves to embarrass her. If the person is on this list, or if anyone on this list knows who is behind it, tell them to knock it off.” - Politico via Drudge

Hillary Clinton’s people — current and former — are mystified, suspicious and bit peeved with the recent raft of mysterious “Draft Hillary” robocalls and emails and a mangy http://www.runhillary2012.net/ web site – which looks like it was produced in the Hindu Kush.

The current theory, according to posts on a listserv frequented by former Clinton 2008 staffers and senate staff forwarded to POLITICO, is that it’s a GOP plot.

The presumed Republican motive, however feckless, is that the campaign would sow divisions in the Democratic ranks, and remind people that the secretary of state is a lot more popular than the man who bested her in the primaries four years ago. (The fact that Clinton is hugely popular isn’t lost on the scattered remnants of Hillaryland who see a 2016 race as a possibility, but think any premature talk about her ambitions would sabotage her chances.)

But the current text that accompanies the online petition being pushed around is so bare bones it seems phony on its surface (“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should be the Democratic Party’s 2012 Presidential nominee. Run Hillary Run!”) and seems to be as implicitly anti-Obama as explicitly pro-Clinton (“We need a president who will not compromise on core democratic values”). But who knows.