You can’t exactly accuse someone who just finished a book tour of hiding, but Hillary Clinton certainly is ducking a lot of questions. And that’s understandable, because she would have a lot of problems coming up with answers that wouldn’t hurt her prospects for the presidency. At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin notes:

Maggie Haberman of Politico confirms first that Hillary Clinton is entirely inaccessible to the media and second that none of those denied access thought it important to let the public know Clinton is hiding from questions. Haberman observed, “What has been really striking about Hillary Clinton’s book tour is she has not taken a single question, that I know of from reporters who are attending.”

Well, who can blame Clinton from hiding, I suppose, given her declining popularity, the gaffe-filled book tour and the instability engulfing Europe and the Middle East. She is ducking the press for now, but even that is problematic. Clinton’s reputation as overly cautious and hyper-controlled at some point becomes a lack of courage and conviction. What does she think we should do about Gaza? What does she think about the Iran interim agreement extension?

Until now Clinton has been cautiously defensive of the administration. After all, it’s pretty hard to indict the president and her successor for policies essentially begun on her watch. By not speaking out she’s preserving the appearance of solidarity with the president, which these days seems like a general-election error. Nevertheless, with the potential for a left-wing challenger hanging over her head she dare not call out the president for weakness, indecision or insufficient world leadership. But soon she will be presented with the choice she thought she left behind in 2008: Be responsible on foreign policy or play to the left-wing base?

Meanwhile, her public standing is crumbling. Michael Barone points out:

A Politico poll conducted July 3-13 asked respondents to rate Clinton's performance as Secretary of State. The results: 14 percent excellent, 28 percent good, 21 percent fair and 32 percent poor. The number rating her performance poor was around double the number rating it excellent -- a ratio that suggests that strength of opinion is on the negative side.

And when you add up the results, with excellent and good being rated, as is standard practice, as positive, and fair and poor being rated negative, it comes out as 42 percent positive and 53 percent negative. That's almost exactly identical to the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls on Obama's job rating: 42 percent positive and 52 percent negative.

And then there’s Bill. A new book from respected author Ronald Kessler is about to blow the lid off his continuing philandering, and the Secret Service’s accommodation of it. The New York Post’s Richard Johnson reports:

Bill Clinton reportedly has a buxom blond mistress who visits so often when Hillary Clinton isn’t home in Chappaqua that the former president’s Secret Service detail have given her an unofficial code name: Energizer.

This is according to Ronald Kessler in “The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of Presidents,” due Aug. 5 from Crown Forum.

Kessler is no stranger to the controversies surrounding the Secret Service.

He broke the story that Secret Service agents protecting President Obama in Cartagena, Colombia, hired prostitutes, and put the president in jeopardy.

The book, portions of which I’ve obtained, says none of the normal protocols are followed when Energizer arrives in her SUV, sometimes just minutes after Hillary has left the Westchester house.

Kessler quotes a supervisor informing a new agent: “You don’t stop her, you don’t approach her, you just let her go in.”

Energizer, who is described as charming and friendly, sometimes brought cookies to the agents, according to the book excerpts. (snip)

Kessler also reports that Hillary’s Secret Service detail informs Bill’s Secret Service detail when the former First Lady is coming home, so Bill has time to get Energizer off the property and clean up any evidence.

But once, the warning came late. “The agents had to scramble to get Energizer out of there so there wasn’t some kind of big confrontation.”

Kessler also reveals that Hillary is routinely rude to the agents who are sworn to take a bullet for her.

I have never downplayed the magnitude of Hillary’s lust for power. But there are more and more reasons piling up for her to not run.