What Does Hillary Want?
"What does Hillary want?'' the defeated Democratic presidential candidate rhetorically asked supporters on the night her rival clinched the party nomination.
Here is what she really wants:
1. Sen. Barack Obama to plead with her to accept the second place on the ticket.
2. A return to power in Washington to be close to the job she lost and feels cheated about (though as the heavy favorite who blew it).
3. A place at the table for her husband, the former president, who hurt her effort in the primaries with some over-the-top comments.
Rather than give Obama one night to savor victory, Mrs. Clinton played every card on Tuesday. She sent the word that she would consider, yes, consider, being Obama's running mate.
Then she was defiant and refused to concede the election. She was introduced by Terry McAuliffe, her apparently delusional campaign chairman, as the "next president of the United States." In St. Paul, where Obama was claiming victory, he had to be seething over McAuliffe's and her lack of grace.
Lanny Davis, another Clinton zealot, was circulating a petition calling on Obama to put her on the ticket. He said he was acting alone, but that sounds like another whopper from the Clinton camp.
To my mind, Obama should resist being stampeded by the Clinton forces. He's the winner and voters will be watching how he handles this situation.
Perhaps she will wind up on the ticket, but it should be on his terms, not hers. Her disappointment should not rule the day.
Many Democrats and hosts of independents are not eager to see a reprise of Clinton drama in the latter stages of his presidency.
The argument can be made that comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert along with the gag writers on Saturday Night Live would have a lot of material with the Clintons on the stage during the summer and fall campaign.
Be careful, Senator Obama. This decision could set a marker on the strength you will bring to the office if you are elected.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | Hillary Clinton
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Reader Comments
Not your VP
In my opinion, Senator Clinton would continually try to upstage "President Obama" during his administration. Mr. Obama should look for another popular person who can win the voters with whom he has less kinship and who will be a team player. Two who come to mind are Bill Richardson and Ed Rendell.
Mr. Richardson is Governor of New Mexico, has been UN Ambassador, US Energy Secretary and a member of the US House of Representatives. He is also partly Latino and could find common ground with those voters.
Mr. Rendell is Governor of Pennsylvania and was Mayor of Philadelphia. he would be able to reach out effectively to the blue collar, "lunch-pail" voter of ether party.
Hillary Supporters are unreal!
Those of you who maintain that Hillary should be the VP, or that somehow she was "cheated" out of the nomination, are delusional. In one lengthy diatribe posted here it was alluded to that Obama had to clarify too many things he said that were uncler or open to interpretation. What about the sniper fire? What about the comments about Bobby Kennedy?
Even worse to me is the fact that Hillary continued to pound on the Demopcratic Party to include Florida and Michigan votes, despite their fiolation of agreed upon rules. Bush and Mitt Romney have both been called wafflers (as has Bill Clinton), but now the entire Democratic Party is forced into waffling over those votes. It would be better to hold to the rules set out before the primaries started than to back-pedal later.
Senator Clinton began the campaign with a commanding lead. She blew it. She is not "entitled" to the nomination, nor did she win the popular vote. To add her to the ticket would be a travesty. At this point, she's either gearing up for another run in 2012 or begging to reclaim some of the money she wasted after the race was over.
This is not a race issue, nor is it a sexism issue. If you look at the pros and cons of each candidate you'll find that they both have strengths and they both have weaknesses. Obama doesn't need Hillary.
AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN
Hillary as running mate is not an option. Wherever she goes, she will bring the 800-pound Gorilla, her husband, with her. As former president, he would steal Obama's thunder. The Obama camp can't allow that to happen.
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John W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.