Anthony Weiner is Probably Sexting Right Now

What else are we to conclude from his interview with New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill, published today? Nothing else. Check out these two questions and answers, which are for some odd reason buried within an avalanche of self-regarding pabulum:

Q. Is there yet another woman's shoe about to drop in this campaign?

A. I have no idea. These are people who I thought were friends, people I trusted when I communicated with them. But who knows what they might do now. But none of it is new. It's all old stuff. So I'll be in this race for at least the next 44 days. And I think I can win.

Q. There is no one you are sexting now?

A. You can quibble about beginnings, middles and ends but what we're talking about is over a year ago.

We can what? Why didn't he just say: "No, of course not, I'm not a complete idiot." I've been around these people a pretty long time. When a politician doesn't say simply and plainly no, the answer is almost always yes. Notice: "what we're talking about" happened over a year ago. Leaves open the possibility that there's all this other stuff we're not talking about, and it's happening right now.

And as for the first question, well, the same rule applies, right? “I have no idea” means, in all likelihood, yes, but I have no idea whether they'll step forward, and I hope they won't, because I've begged them not to and explained to them how it'll screw up their lives, too (Sydney Leathers was spotted tooling around L.A. with the guy who runs Vivid, the porn stable), so I'm just hoping that they won't do this to me.

That's the likely reality. He's probably sexting in the campaign van between stops.

Meanwhile, here's a Huma question, which I tweeted this morning, but want now to ask all of you. Let us suppose that Weiner peters out in this race and finishes with something like 9 percent—a dismal fourth-place finish, in other words. And let's assume Huma stands by him all the way, is there with him on election night, gives him a consoling kiss at the podium, all the rest. In that circumstance, can Hillary possibly give her a spot on the 2016 campaign?

My instinct says no. Why give the opponents and the comedians and everyone else the ammo? Other people whose views I respect say it’s just a Beltway-media thing and nobody in America knows or cares who she is. I guess I could see that. But you don't want distractions in a presidential campaign. Plus, next time around, if Hillary does run, one of the media's themes is sure to be (I can predict this with 100 percent certainty) whether she is a competent manager. Because, in fact, she did somewhat mismanage things last time, so one of the crucial “Can she govern?” tests is going to be what kind of campaign she runs.