All of this hullabaloo about Hillary not speaking at the Dem convention has got me thinking. What if it’s all a con? Everyone keeps talking about how there’s no news to be found in the conventions. As Richard Cohen noted this morning (see below) the choice of Ron Reagan as a speaker was designed to create some buzz for what promises to be a buzzless convention. What if the Hillary snub is the modern equivalent of a staged floor fight? It creates drama for the press: Will She Speak? etc.

Indeed, why else would so many prominent Democrats be off message from the Kerry campaign if they weren’t in on the whole thing? Besides, there’s no practical reason why Hillary shouldn’t speak. Hillary will be a player in 2008 no matter what, so all of this stuff about positioning Hillary viz a viz Edwards for 2008 or 2012 doesn’t make much sense. Ideologically, Hillary’s actually a lot more conservative than Ted Kennedy these days. And while I can understand why the Kerry campaign might want to distance itself from the Clintons, I don’t think that’s that big a concern. After all a full-blown bear hug for Ted is a lot more damaging than a respectable speech by Hillary.

So maybe this is all a stunt?