What Now for Hillary?

By Si Dunn

The Democrats’ nominating mess/process effectively could be over by early June. But many political columnists and political leaders want Hillary Clinton to drop out now, while she’s riding high in West Virginia and still--theoretically--has some sort of mathematical chance, visible at least through rose-colored magnifying glasses.

A slim majority of Democrats are ready to nominate an inspiring speaker—Barack Obama—-who won’t have quite enough political experience to pull Humpty Dumpty America back together again and also take on an enormous list of challenges at the same time. Not without one hell of a lot of economic and diplomatic Superglue and significant help from both sides of the political aisle. (And don’t count on much from the Republican Party, of course, except grumpy lip service and petulant foot dragging, once John McCain and many GOP incumbents are trounced at the polls.)

Pundits such as E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post also want Sen. Clinton to forgo any thoughts of the vice presidency in favor of becoming “a powerful figure in the Democratic Party”—-which, in case he hasn’t noticed lately, she already is. Dionne wants her to clear the way for a “Clinton supporter” such as Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, or Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania to become the vice-presidential nominee.

Any of these gentlemen no doubt could be reasonably good veeps. But now is not the time for “reasonably good.”

Whether Obama and Clinton secretly like each other or hate each other, millions of people from many diverse corners of this nation have voted for them in almost equal numbers. They want inspiration—-“Yes, we can!”—-but they also know the challenges ahead demand deep ranges of national and international experience, much of which Hillary Clinton (and well-picked advisors) can provide.

Many voters also believe the time is long overdue to break two glass ceilings at once in the White House: race and gender.

We can’t have a co-presidency, of course. But an Obama-Clinton (or Clinton-Obama) ticket would present the strongest possible combination of inspiration and experience. We will need that—-and we will need them--to help get us off our dispirited butts and start cleaning up the massive wreckage left behind by Hurricane Bush.
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