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June 4, 2008

Hillary weighs her options

Rick Moran
Last night after Obama clinched the race for all practical purposes, Hillary Clinton gave a rather curious speech. She didn't suspend her campaign. She didn't concede the race - even after telling leading Democrats all day that she would mention Obama going over the top. In fact, she claimed her own victory of sorts by alluding to her slight lead in the popular vote.

Her refusal to quit has the netnuts who are in the bag for Obama in an uproar. Matt Yglesias said "Suffice it to say that I've found her behavior over the past couple of months to be utterly unconscionable and this speech is no different." Maureen Dowd had a column today where she wrote:

He thought a little thing like winning would stop her .

Oh, Bambi.

Whoever said that after denial comes acceptance hadn't met the Clintons.

If Hillary could not have an acceptance speech, she wasn't going to have acceptance.

"It's never going to end," sighed one Democrat who has been advising Hillary. "We're just moving to a new phase."

Barry has been trying to shake off Hillary and pivot for quite a long time now, but she has managed to keep her teeth in his ankle and raise serious doubts about his potency. Getting dragged across the finish line Tuesday night by Democrats who had had enough of the rapacious Clintons, who had decided, if it came to it, that they would rather lose with Obama than win with Hillary, the Illinois senator tried to celebrate at the St. Paul arena where Republicans will anoint John McCain in September.

But even as Obama was trying to savor, Hillary was refusing to sever. Ignoring the attempts of Obama and his surrogates to graciously say how "extraordinary" she was as they showed her the exit, she and a self-pitying Bill continued to pull focus. Outside Baruch College, where she was to speak, her fierce feminist supporters screamed "Denver! Denver! Denver!"


The usually mild mannered liberal Norm Schieber wrote about "That Outrageous and Delusional Clinton Speech." The majority of Obama supporters are as mad as hornets at Hillary Clinton today, thinking that given the perfect opportunity to quit the race, she spoiled some of Obama's historic glory by not conceding much at all in her speech.

Does this hurt her chances for the Vice Presidency. What has emerged over the last 24 hours is the surprising news that Hillary actually wants the Veep job. Or she could be floating her name knowing full well that Obama would never agree to her being on the ticket. Or she knows that Obama can't say no.

Interestingly, both observations are correct. The decision Obama must now make is whether he takes a huge gamble and puts Hillary - warts, husband Bill, and past baggage all - on the ticket or whether he takes his chances that he can win alone. The combination Obama-Clinton would be nearly unbeatable. But the downside once governing the country started would be incredible. Who wants to be president when Bill Clinton is running around like a loose cannon?

That's why despite the fact that an Obama-Clinton ticket couldn't lose, Obama will figure that this is enough of a Democratic year that he can win without her and be his own man in the White House.

Beyond that, Clinton may negotiate some minor changes in the party platform on Health insurance. The party may even grant her more say in the language to appear in the platform - a sop to her supporters who Obama desperately needs to win in November.

But it just doesn't appear that the Vice Presidency is in the cards for Clinton. Too much risk to make such a move worthwhile.


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