Opinion: Hillary Clinton on Sarah Palin? She’s keeping her cards close to the vest

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Perhaps Amy Poehler, in the much-anticipated opening skit on the season premiere of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ truly channeled Hillary Clinton’s innermost feelings toward Sarah Palin.

But as for the actual senator from New York, if she shares the angst and anguish so comically expressed by Poehler, she’s steadfastly keeping it to herself.

The media entourage that once breathed down Clinton’s neck has long since moved on. But Elizabeth Moore, our colleague at Newsday, was on the scene this past weekend as Clinton campaigned in Ohio on behalf of Barack Obama, that fellow who bested her in the Democratic presidential race.

As the Palin phenomenon has taken much of America by storm -- and clouded Obama’s presidential prospects -- some Democrats have spotlighted Clinton as the party figure best able to stem that tide. They envision her vigorously taking Palin to task in a way that a male politician dare not.

So far, Clinton has carefully avoided going that route. She took a pass at a large partisan gathering earlier this month in New York. And in her two Sunday stops, Moore relates, she ‘continued to play it cool,’ delivering ‘what is becoming her standard vote-for-Obama rally speech.’

And what does that mean, in terms of Palin?

Barely a mention.

-- Don Frederick