If Caroline Kennedy wants to do Barack Obama a favor, she will
kill the idea of Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential
nominee-pronto.
The daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, along with
two other prominent Democrats, has been chosen by
Senator Obama to pursue the search for his running mate for the
general election campaign.
Senator Hillary Clinton’s ungracious refusal to concede defeat,
after the conclusion of Tuesday’s primary elections in Montana and
South Dakota, did not stop her from letting it be known that she
would consider the vice president’s slot. Talk about cheek. The
woman showed no class at all. She has done better than this in
terms of the etiquette of public life and politics. I had two
interactions with her while working at EPA and found her to be an
intelligent, charming person, by all accounts an effective Senator
even if you did not share her politics. Is it the drive for power
that takes such a toll on an otherwise normal human being?
Obama’s deft deployment of the Kennedy mystique brought the
discussion of his running mate back to earth, slowed down the tempo
of the game, and allowed time for the political dynamic to play
itself out for a time. It sends a clear message to Senator Clinton
that her bargaining position, while not negligible, is hardly
unassailable.
That wily politician, Ed Rendell, Democratic governor of
Pennsylvania, sees the reality of Senator Clinton’s situation
very clearly:
“There’s no bargaining. You don’t bargain with the
Presidential nominee. Even if you’re Hillary Clinton and you have
18 million votes, you don’t bargain.”
But that’s not the half of it. What about Bill Clinton, rogue
ex-President, who has taken on the role of political
hatchet-and-hit man, the purveyor of racial politics? Let’s face
it: nominating Hillary is the functional equivalent of nominating
Bill Clinton for vice president.
Governor Rendell understands the dilemma Senator Obama faces
were he to choose Hillary/Bill Clinton as the VP pick:
“The Obama campaign would have to make strict
rules…about what President Clinton could and could not do during
the campaign…the Obama campaign would have to control his
schedule…”
Sure. But how do you control what comes out of his mouth? You could
send President Clinton to the Arctic Circle, but some reporter or
blogger or a person with camera in her cell phone will capture
whatever gems of wisdom President Clinton might share with the
assembled seal hunters. Again, Rendell:
“You know rule one for the vice president is make sure
you never upstage the president, right? [Right!] It’s rule one. You
know, Hillary Clinton in some ways couldn’t help but upstage, even
if she was trying not to.”
Even discounting for the possibility that Governor Rendell wants to
be vice president himself, his comments are very perceptive and
spot-on.
The Bill Problem gets worse if Barack Obama were actually to be
elected President. Think of Jimmy Carter’s free-lance diplomacy,
multiply it, oh, by a hundred. That is what you will have to
contend with if Billary is in ensconced at the Naval Observatory
grounds in Northwest Washington.
Maybe Jack and Bobby Kennedy really did loathe Lyndon Johnson,
but they never had to worry about Lady Bird, a woman who actually
enhanced the image of the Kennedys, Johnson, and Washington, D.C.
where she worked to restore its floral beauty on her own time.
Caroline, do your candidate a favor. Just drop a hint to
Vanity Fair that there is no way Hillary Clinton will
become vice president. Even if Senator Obama loses every single
white-male-female-rural-blue-collar-whatever-demographic-you-like
voter, and, consequently, the election, you would be doing America
a great service.
