Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned. - The Guardian, November 17, 2008
This really does seem like a brilliant move, if the Guardian story is true. It beautifully neutralizes Hillary as a divisive figure. She knows Biden isn't likely to be running in eight years, and that she can have an inside track on the heir apparent role if she plays the good soldier. (And, of course, she'd be fourth in the line of succession . . . not that she would ever think of such a thing.) Meanwhile, Obama gets a surrogate of unprecedented recognition and more stature going into the job than anyone at least since George Marshall.
Secretary of State is a job that I think Hillary Clinton would be pretty good at. And having her there would spare us from having to see someone like Kerry or Holbrooke pontificating away on a regular basis. She knows Biden is probably too old to have his own 2016 ambitions, and that makes her potentially very manageable for Obama if she's given a prominent yet distinct cabinet portfolio.
Mr. Obama has asked his top donors to help raise money for her debt, and so far they have come up with less than $100,000 (though more in pledges), Clinton campaign officials said — a “paltry sum,” in the words of one.
Clinton donors and campaign officials say they remain surprised — and, among some, offended — that Mr. Obama has refused to ask his entire list of donors, more than 1.5 million people, to send $5, $10 or more to chip away at Mrs. Clinton’s debt. (Obama officials said they did not want to distract their donors for the main task at hand, raising money to defeat Mr. McCain.) - New York Times, July 9, 2008
I don't think it bodes well for Hillary's (nonexistent) chance to be on the ticket that the Obama campaign yesterday tapped Patti Solis-Doyle to serve as the running mate's chief of staff . . . considering that Hillary and Solis-Doyle have not spoken since Hillary flung Solis-Doyle from her campaign's balloon gondola.
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'Cause if you really want to hear MWR's views . . .
This is the 75th entry over more than 2-1/2 years to bear the "Hillary Clinton" label. I'd like to claim that the tenor of these has evolved in a way that does credit to my thoughtfulness and my open-minded nature. But the fact is, I might have written the phrase "arrogant, vindictive, snake-like nature" yesterday (not) or at the very beginning (indeed).
The entries will taper off quickly. Though her departure was writ months ago, it continues in slow motion like the end of a bad dream. I shake out the cobwebs and realize I'm never going to be called upon to vote for her, and it's every bit as satisfying as grasping that there is no calculus test in three days, I didn't inadvertently kill that person, my Leica wasn't stolen from that luggage in Switzerland, etc. We all have our nightmares.
I forget which moronic Op-Ed contributor suggested Obama should publicly promise to nominate Hillary to the first open Supreme Court seat. Whoever it was had evidently forgotten that Obama's goal is to win the election (apart from the impropriety of promising to nominate a particular person to the Court.
However, I was just reading about the meaningless results from Puerto Rico, and Hillary's pointless comments thereafter (“In recent primary history, we have never nominated someone who has not won the popular vote.”) and reflecting on how nice it will be to finally have her gone. And I thought of the perfect way for Obama to . . . compensate . . . her for dragging out the nomination process beyond the limits of common sense and, from time to time, decency.
He should do to her (ahem, I mean for her) what FDR did to/for Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., offer her one of the greatest meaningless plums the Executive Branch has to offer, the Ambassadorship to the Court of St. James's. And figure out the details of the offer so that if she turns it down, she really has to come across as snubbing the President-elect. I'd enjoy watching those machinations.
Of course, despite its historic primacy, that ambassadorship isn't what it once was, and she has that delightful (or repellent) "Hillary grit" that might be put to good use in some other diplomatic settings. So, Russia could be an option (and if there weren't a bond of mutual respect forged between Hillary and Putin, it would only be because Hillary longs to rule a country and Putin only likes winners). However, as a poetic posting for Hillary, Russia is mere blank verse to the iamabic pentameter that is . . . Saudi Arabia. Oh, yes. She could see about solving our energy problems at the source, perhaps shaming the House of Saud into giving something back to hard-working white Indianans. For its part, the repressive, socially backward kingdom deserves to have someone like Hillary to deal with. And what a wonderful repository Riyadh would be for Bill.
I remain amazed that anyone I know has the slightest lingering good feeling for that Macbeth-hermaphrodite Hillary Clinton, or will feel any sadness at her much-belated departure from the nomination contest besides their regret that my party could not have been earlier. [pauses to admire sentence]
If you are one of those people, be sure to read this excellent Op-Ed piece by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post. Consider what it reveals (or reminds us yet again) about Hillary Clinton. Her conduct in the Florida and Michigan delegate drama has been so disgusting and sordidly self-serving that I can only think her remaining supporters don't know about it, don't understand it or have blinded themselves to reason. Hillary herself at this point displays the motivational complexity and moral compass of a brine shrimp, albeit one with an extraordinary lifespan.
Clinton has always claimed to be the cold-eyed realist in the race, and at one point maybe she was. Increasingly, though, her words and actions reflect the kind of thinking that animates myths and fairy tales: Maybe a sudden and powerful storm will scatter my enemy's ships. Maybe a strapping woodsman will come along and save the day. - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, May 27, 2008
It's well worth reading the whole piece. I have not bothered to blog about her RFK comments, perhaps in anticipation of Hillary's forthcoming irrelevance, but I did note with pleasure that she floated her assassination comment on a raft of Clintonian misleadingisms (What is the word I want? Does it exist?), which Robinson and others have done a good job of disassembling.
Obama was from the Illinois State Senate untimely ripp'd
I don't remember which writer recently made this point, but I'll elaborate on the beautiful irony that Hillary wouldn't be having her current troubles if her ambition hadn't impelled her to throw a few things in her carpetbag while still living in the White House. Her material connection to New York was never anything more elevated than the target lock achieved between her ambitions (presidential) and the Senate seat Moynihan was vacating.
If she'd been willing to wait a while and run from her actual home state, the seat Obama now holds would have been hers for the taking. And right now she'd be the one who wasn't around to cast an Iraq vote, and in every sense the Clintons cared about, there would be no Barack Obama.
With the exception of two good friends—normally pictures of charm and sense, now showing odd transference issues—everyone seems to be relishing my upcoming Hillary Drops Out! party. Just when it will happen is anyone's guess, but the writing has been on the wall since Valentine's Day or thereabouts. I'll be setting the party for the day after she pulls that ripcord, and the nice thing about Seattle is that it hardly matters whether VH Day is a weekend, because my guests can't be relied on to stay past 11:15 even on a Saturday night.
I'm having fun putting together the iTunesplaylist. As you would imagine, the challenge is deciding whether and how to cull the list (current size: 65 songs). When you factor in irony and the need for an occasional sop, the list just takes wing.
Is anyone in public life more cynical than Hillary Clinton?
Although CNN cut away, Hillary seemed to have used her remarks on Ted Kennedy's medical condition to springboard into something about health care. She's so predictable.
Forget Kansas—what's the matter with West Virginia?
If Hillary really does end up winning West Virginia by 20 or 30 percentage points, you really have to ask yourself what's going through the minds of those voters. Did Huckabee have any such wins after his fate was equally clear? (Not a rhetorical question—I have forgotten, as it was AGES ago.)
It seems weird to me that so many people would care enough about Hillary Clinton to go vote for her at this point. Could that many people in West Virginia really believe that a strong showing for her in their state will make a difference now? Are they disengaged from the reality, from the news, or what? Here's a state that originated with not wanting to back a losing cause, and Hillary is expected to win there by double digits. It does not compute for me at all. (I mean, it does, since the place is surely full of gun-clinging, Bible-clinging hard-working white racists, but I'd love to give them a little more credit.)
Do you think it's impossible for Hillary Clinton to be the nominee? Impossible?
Nice standard. Try living your life by that one.
He goes on to concur with Russert that "you would need an act of God or for something catastrophic to happen to the Obama campaign": "Sure, something big would have to happen, I'll give you that."
So, then, why not "suspend" the campaign, a sure loser unless there is a catastrophe? She could pop back in if necessary to save us all from an Obama meltdown or whatever. (By the way, "suspending" counts as dropping out as far as my forthcoming party is concerned.)
I hope Hillary Clinton pays a lasting political price for her increasingly insane unwillingness to leave the race. I hope this unreasonable stubbornness brands her the way indecision branded Mario Cuomo.
If you have some weird lingering respect for the Clintons and their "right" to prolong this contest absurdly, be sure to read the current columns by Bob Herbert and Maureen Dowd.
Final random thought: putting aside everything else, isn't it amazing in a way that there are 300-plus million people in this country and only 16 million and change have affirmatively supported either Obama or Clinton?
So, Obama is supposed to have a Marshall Plan for Hillary?
So Clinton vows to stay in through the end, and surrogates like James Carville are talking tough. But the feeling is that it's all posturing as the Clinton Camp negotiates for 1) having Obama pay off her campaign debt, and/or 2) a spot on the ticket as VP. - Kos, May 7, 2008
Oh, truly, that's rich.
Don't forget she started off on this venture by sloshing $13 million of leftover 2006 senate-race money into her campaign's coffers.
As of today, for sure, Hillary Clinton's continued presence in the race cannot be justified. It's one thing to be a fighter and another to stay in the ring, round after round, mathematically eliminated on every judge's card, launching low blows and hoping your opponent is felled by a meteorite.
Today is rightly the first day of the long-expected period when pressure grows everywhere (except in Republican circles) for her to get out. It's appealing to be "a fighter", but not to be "delusional".
I remain bewildered by the attraction anyone I know feels toward Hillary, but passions run deeper than I realize. Last night I took the opportunity to send a short Evite note to those I'd invited to my forthcoming "Hillary Drops Out!" party (which has been in the "hold the concept" stage for more than a month). All it said was "It's 10:05 on the West Coast and she could very well still lose Indiana! I hope to see you very soon." At the time, there were indications that she very well could lose Indiana as results from the last big county to be tallied were coming in 3 to 1 for Obama. This harmless note brought me not one but two responses from old friends, both charming and friendly women lawyers older than me.
"Are you trying to offend me or just being incredibly stupid?"
"[MWR], call me old and cranky, but please take me off this list as you know how I feel and I don't find it amusing."
