At the end of the campaign trail, a new road for Hillary Clinton?
Commentary
By James P. Gannon
After a campaign marked by her tenacity, resilience and late-blooming effectiveness as a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton reaches the end of the trail Saturday. The question facing her–and the Democratic Party and its new leader, Barack Obama–is whether there is a place for her that’s right for all concerned and for the county as well.
The vice presidency is exactly the wrong place for a woman as strong and as hungry for power as Hillary Clinton. The Obama-Clinton “Dream Ticket” being pushed by some of her supporters (and her husband Bill) makes sense only for the next five months of the general election campaign, but not for a day beyond next Nov. 4, Election Day.
It’s even debatable whether Clinton as Obama’s running mate would bring more assets than liabilities to the Democratic ticket. Hillary comes with enormous baggage as well as strong support from women, blue-collar whites and senior citizens. And, after 16 years at the pinnacle of Washington’s elite power establishment, she totally undercuts Obama’s most compelling message of change and a turning away from the bankrupt partisanship of Washington politics in the past two decades.
Obama can’t choose Clinton as his running mate without seeming to turn his back on his message (as he did on his church when it became a political liability) and without looking weak in his first truly presidential test. If he bends to the Clinton pressure in choosing his running mate, it will raise questions about whether he’s tough enough to be president. Is he a strong leader or can he be pushed around?
After eight years of doubts about whether George W. Bush or Dick Cheney is actually running the country, we don’t need another four or eight years of similar doubts about Obama and the Clintons. Imagine the cartoons: There’s Obama in the saddle of a motorcycle with a sidecar with two seats and separate steering for Hillary and Bill–who are not just along for the ride.
But there is a place for Hillary–a more meaningful office than the vice presidency, one which would recognize her emergence as a woman of strength and a leader in her own right. And the Democrats can make this happen, without any by-your-leave from the Republicans in Washington.
The place for Hillary is Senate Majority Leader.
As the Senate leader in an Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton would have her own independent power base in what probably would be the second most powerful job in Washington. The 2008 election is likely to expand the Democratic majority in the Senate. The leader’s position will have enormous leverage over the fate of health-care reform, economic initiatives, Supreme Court appointments and everything else a new president proposes.
Hillary could help shape those initiatives as Senate Majority Leader, where she would have her own bully pulpit and attention from the media. She’s proven in her years in the Senate and in her just-finished campaign that she has the strength, vision, and political savvy to run the legislative chamber where good ideas often go to die.
Her power as Senate leader would be real, not the pseudo-power of the vice presidency. In that role, she would avoid raising the inevitable questions about a co-presidency with Obama, and about her Bill-in-the-China Shop husband and his activities–political and otherwise.
And the beauty of this idea is that the Democrats can make it happen–one Democrat in particular, current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid, who has been as effective and impressive a Senate leader as Dennis Kucinich was as a presidential candidate, can open the way by announcing that he has decided not to stand for Majority Leader in January 2009, and that he will support Senator Clinton for that position.
Only the Democrats in the Senate have a vote on this. It’s hard to imagine them denying this to Hillary if she went after it, with Reid’s blessing.
This idea works to Clinton’s advantage whether or not Obama wins the November election. If he does, she becomes critical to his success as president. If he loses, she becomes Queen of the Hill in a President John McCain administration–as a counterbalance to GOP power in the White House. And, she would have a powerful platform for launching her 2012 presidential campaign while burnishing her credentials as a political leader.
All this idea needs is a little backroom orchestration by Obama and the Democratic elders in the Senate, and a willingness on Clinton’s part. Maybe Harry Reid might like a seat on the Supreme Court. Or a nice ambassadorship in London, Paris, or Rome.
Obama needs to call Harry Reid with some good retirement ideas. He ought to do this before even thinking about his vice presidential choice.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from Brian Foss
Time: June 5, 2008, 7:11 pm
I totally agree on the VP being totally wrong for HRC. But, I could not disagree more strongly that Hillary would make a good Majority Leader. She lacks the most important aspect of a good Majority Leader: the respect of her peers. Harry Reid is a disaster, for sure, but the Democrats need a strong Majority Leader, and HRC would pretend she was President. I’d prefer someone of the caliber of Chris Dodd as Majority Leader.
I enjoy RappVoice very much - I am a part-time Rappahannock person, and part-time Miami.
Brian Foss
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