There have been hints about this in recent weeks, and now Times Online reports of growing speculation that New York Senator Hillary Clinton may decide to pass on the 2008 Presidential race and solidify her role in the U.S. Senate:
Friends of Hillary Clinton have been whispering the unthinkable. Despite her status as the runaway frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, some of her closest advisers say she might opt out of the White House race and seek to lead her party in the Senate.
The former first lady longs to return to the White House with husband Bill as consort. Only last week she told television viewers America would be led by a woman one day. “Stay tuned,� she said.
First, however, she has to win the election. Some Democratic party elders — the American equivalent of the Tories’ “men in grey suits� — say Clinton may back out of the race of her own volition.
“I would not be surprised if she were to decide that the best contribution she can make to her country is to forget about being president and become a consensus-maker in the Senate,� said a leading Democratic party insider. “She believes there is no trust between the two political sides and that we can’t function as a democracy without it.�
If that would be the motivation, it would be a admirable one, indeed: American democracy has reached the point now where it has become a clone of screaming, accusatory, demonizing talk radio shows that (on the left and right) have come to approach political debate as the equivalent of verbal professional wrestling. There are the good guys (whomever the talk show host wants) and the bad guys (whomever is on the other side). Some consider anyone using the word consensus a political wimp. MORE:
As senator for New York, Clinton has forged alliances across party lines with leading Republicans such as Senator John McCain and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives. In the eyes of the electorate, however, she is a potentially divisive figure.
A recent poll for Time magazine showed that 53% of the electorate said they had a favourable impression of Clinton and only 44% viewed her negatively, figures that President George W Bush can only dream of at the moment. Even so, 53% of independent voters said they would not vote for her.
“The prospect of a Hillary for President campaign has put much of the Democratic establishment in a bind,� Time concluded. “The early line is that Hillary would be unstoppable in a Democratic primary but unelectable in a general election.�
The solution, insiders say, is for Clinton to take over as Senate minority leader in 2009 from the lacklustre Harry Reid, senator for Nevada. One well-respected blog, The Washington Note, recently claimed that Reid privately told Clinton the job was hers if she gave up her presidential ambitions.
All of this is speculative, of course. But if Hillary Clinton should pass on 2008, whom would it likely immediately benefit in terms of front-runner status?
Probably the first bit of political fallout would be a serious draft Al Gore movement.
A John Kerry re-run is also favored — by John Kerry. There are few signs of a Let’s Run Kerry Again ground-swell elsewhere.
And, then again, there are always candidates who’ll do well in the primary who don’t look like evident front runners now.
The two big questions: will Hillary clear the path for others? And, if she does, how will Rush Limbaugh fill his show in 2008? (We’re sure he’ll find a way…)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.