Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Clintons' Long Goodbye

No one expected they would go quietly, but the Clintons may be maneuvering the former First Lady off the Democratic ticket by continuing to strong-arm Barack Obama rather than graciously conceding his nomination.

"Hillary Rodham Clinton," AP reported yesterday, "will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president."

She did no such thing.

Coupled with her coy statement during the day about being "open" to the vice-presidency if it "would help the party's prospects in November," Sen. Clinton seems to be confirming the worst nightmare of the Obama campaign--that she would be a prima donna on the ticket, going her own way, singing her own arias while you-know-who kept tap-dancing not quite out of sight.

For Democrats who want to end the Bush nightmare, all this is disheartening. It isn't necessary to see Obama as the Second Coming to want him to be able to make his race against McCain without added weight on his back.

As the super-delegates climb on the bandwagon this week, will they be able to persuade both Hillary and Bill Clinton to stop campaigning and maneuvering and just get aboard? Otherwise they may be wrecking Obama's future--and their own.

None of us wants to end up with the scorpion-and-frog punchline, "Because it's in my nature."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nominate Hillary for the first Supreme Court vacancy that comes up. She'd be more influential than being in Congress,it won't matter how stupid Bill gets and it would be fun to watch Scalia, Alito, Thomas et al freak out every day at work