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At first I thought it was the Fat Lady that I heard warming up for her final number. It turned out that the shrill “Mi, mi, mi, mi, mi” that I heard was actually Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech on maintaining the status quo ante and she was saying, Me, me, me, me, me!” Her speech was a production calculated to minimize Obama’s victory to the electorate. It was sort of a “first prize is a gut punch” kind of thing.
In a perfunctorily polite, however ungracious performance, she adopted the pose of a thoroughly bloodied Jake LaMotta supported by the ropes at the final bell taunting Sugar Ray about not having scored a knock down. This, one is to suppose, is how she endears herself in preparation for an expected invitation to the second spot on the ticket. She stridently demands respect for the loser while refusing to accord the winner anything other than an opportunity to meet her demands.
It is a study in chutzpah that is characteristic of the Clintons and is in large measure why she is so easily disdained.
Yes, she disbanded her campaign staff, but what does that mean? It does not mean that she has thrown in the towel. She doesn’t need more than a skeletal staff to wait for the convention and telephone super delegates to read an arm twisting script, and she can afford little else. It is instructive to note that she was still appealing for funds while she should have been acknowledging and congratulating Obama’s success.
In any event, a general election staff can be assembled for her after the convention if her planned larceny is successful. If unsuccessful, she can lobby for the veep spot.
Obama, however should remain leery of her intentions. From what I see, her only interest in serving as vice-president is in using the office as a vulture’s perch. It is a method to maintain an inside track to the Oval Office as she waits for something to happen that can nourish her ambition. It would be a mistake to underestimate the single-minded lust Hillary has to be president, or to overestimate her scruples as to how she is willing to obtain it.
I say, as I have so often before, that Hillary brings nothing to the ticket other than a nearly 50% negative rating and the famous thirty-five years worth of baggage that she has so often mistaken for experience. That includes her husband, the ex-president who, as just another citizen, may or may not subordinate his own views to those of Obama’s administration.
What of electoral considerations? Obama will get New York and Illinois with or without Hillary’s help, and Arkansas? I’d rather have Virginia or New Mexico.
The other vice-presidential possibilities are universally preferable, as they complement Obama’s skill and experience while bringing positive electoral assets to the table.
So, what is Barack Obama to do with Hillary Rodham Clinton? My advice is, if he’s too gentlemanly to use her, he should simply ignore her.
