If, as some have theorized, Bill Clinton sees Hillary’s campaign for the White House as a means of affirming his own “legacy,” she can go home and bake cookies now.

Or she can settle back into the Senate and half-bake health care reforms.

Her legacy work is every bit as done as her presidential candidacy. She has accomplished what he set out to do, though not in the way either of them envisioned.

Back when all of this began, the plan was that Hillary would cruise to the Democratic nomination, slaughter a Republican sacrificial lamb, re-establish the rule of the House of Clinton and set about erasing the memory of the hated Bushes.

She would finally get to run the world for real, while Bill roamed it on a leisurely victory lap, telling us what a fine reflection on himself it all was.

By happy coincidence, getting her what she wanted most would get Bill what he wanted most: proof of the political invincibility of the Clinton brand and the lasting popularity of its founder.

It’s not going to happen that way. Hillary’s campaign is making a bad corkscrew landing, under fire not only from the usual Clinton foes, but from people who used to be – remember this phrase? – Friends of Bill.

Funny thing, though – by another happy coincidence, it turns out that she didn’t need to win the White House to cement his legacy: Hands down, he’s the better liar.

Americans know very well that politicians lie. It’s expected.

We do have standards, though. A political lie has to make sense on some level.

It can’t be ridiculously transparent. There needs to be some tactically understandable reason for telling it. Documentary evidence to the contrary should be non-existent, or at least hard to find.

If people like a politician whose lie meets those criteria, they’ll play along. Which explains why Bill got so much slack for the times he flagrantly “misspoke,” and Hillary isn’t getting any.

When Bill got busted, he was already the president, so it wasn’t as if his fellow Democrats could or would just cut him loose. His power was their power. They had to grit their teeth and stick with him.

They did so aggressively and enthusiastically, because he was also their indispensable man. It was he who had banished the Republicans from the White House for two full terms in a row – a feat no Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt had managed.

But when Hillary – lacking Bill’s position, charm and direct claim on Democrats’ emotions – told her tall tale about dodging bullets in Bosnia, she miscalculated fatally.

The national media, which already had been well on its way to becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the Barack Experience, has now latched firmly on to Hillary’s Bosnia whopper (first identified in January by my colleague Elizabeth Sullivan).

It was a dumb lie, and it wasn’t her first one. Did you happen to hear, Hillary the Middle School Soccer Player is Hurt By a Racist Remark? How about, Hillary was Deeply Involved in the Irish Peace Process?

Yes, Barack Obama’s telling whoppers, too, but his meet the criteria. He’s all about socialism – described in fuzzier, friendlier terms, of course – and silky, messianic tones: He that believeth in me shall have eternal health care.

Don’t get me wrong. Republicans tell them, too. The Gingrich revolution promised the end of big government. All it delivered was the same big government back to the Democrats.

I picture them all, years hence, sitting on the porch at the Bobby Byrd Home for Decrepit Politicians. No one’s listening. They’re all talking at once.

Gingrich: “… and that’s how we got rid of the Department of Commerce.”

Obama: “I loved taking those long walks on the lake. And I do mean on the lake.”

Bill, feeding the dog under the table: “Hill, I’m not gonna lie. I just can’t get enough of your cookies.”

Hillary: “So, there we were – just me and the bear …”

Al Gore: “Toss me another blanket. Cold for July, isn’t it?”

Kevin O’Brien is deputy editorial page director of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at kobrien(at)plaind.com.