DEBORAH SIMMONS What was Hillary Clinton thinking?

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There is a possibility that Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton orchestrated her own derailment. Not that I’ve seen or heard anyone make such a suggestion.

But we all are reading and listening to various pols and talking heads address Emailgate, the latest issue confronting the Democratic darling.

Here’s Emailgate in a nutshell: Secretary of State Clinton exclusively used a private computer server located in her home in New York to conduct government business.

Hillary is not stupid and she doesn’t play coy, saying, “Oops, did I do that?”

Hillary didn’t dump her philandering husband, Bill, and she stood by her man who was accused of having relations — 12 years of relations — with Gennifer Flowers, a cabaret singer and Arkansas state employee.

A snippet of Hillary’s comments during a 1992 “60 Minutes” interview with Bill, who was running for president:

“You know, I’m not sitting here — some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I’m sitting here because I love him, and I respect him, and I honor what he’s been through and what we’ve been through together. And you know, if that’s not enough for people, then heck, don’t vote for him.”

Those few sentences cemented Hillary as Political Feminist for Life.

And just to remind us of that she still wears (and honors) that crown, she pulled more tricks out from her bag as Emailgate made the news rounds.

In recent days, Hillary has been marking the U.N. Women’s 59th Commission the Status of Women, which, like most anniversaries, says much has been done to empower and bolster a special interest group, yet much remains undone.

A high-water mark is the “No Ceilings” report, a road map to leaning forward globally. Hillary’s daughter, Chelsea, and Melinda Gates (as in spouse to Bill Gates) joined Hillary on Monday to release the report.

As I said, Hillary is not stupid and she doesn’t pretend to be, either. She has not yet said whether she will be a candidate in the 2016 race for the White House, though she has said “the highest and hardest glass ceiling” is winning the U.S. presidency.

For sure, Hillary is about the women in politics and the politics in women, and to her the two issues are not mutually exclusive.

Which is why it’s possible that Hillary’s bag of tricks includes a “Not in 2016” tag.

She might not want to run.

She might not want to relive the media rehashing Gennifer, Monica Lewinsky and the other sexcapades.

She might not even want to face the do-overs of her many good-hair, bad-hair days as first lady.

She clearly doesn’t want to face public grilling of the bloody days in Benghazi, Libya, where innocent American civilians died during her watch as secretary of state. Her “what difference does it make” quip at a congressional hearing on the Benghazi attack cast a pall upon her tenure and her political future.

As for Emailgate, she has no remotely reasonable defense.

Hillary made the call.

If there were someone she could throw under the bus for the installing the personal Internet server in her home and allowing her to use it as a transom for government emails, then the remains of the day would likely have been identified by now — a week after the story broke.

Hillary not running in 2016 might break some Democratic hearts. (I know many Inside the Beltway Dems whose eyes are already welling up.) And feminists? None of them can compare to Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, who began writing the book on sister-girls and politics before she left for Wellesley, moved to Arkansas and met Bill.

Hillary didn’t even acknowledge glass ceilings until 2008, when the Dems reminded her this is a man’s world.

Now all she has to do is let them protect her again, as Rep. Elijah Cummings did during the Benghazi probe. James Carville, the Clintons’ defender extraordinaire, already has given the liberal media its orders on the Emailgate mess.

Hillary is biding her time.

She knows that in politics, timing is everything.

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.