Last week I proposed an alternative career for Hillary Clinton as a US supreme court justice, one that Barack Obama might wish to consider as an alternative to a position for her in his cabinet. While I could be wrong, I continue to assume that the Clintons will do more than pay lip service to the idea that Democratic Party unity and defeating John McCain in November are more important than their personal political ambitions to reclaim her former residence in the White House.
Bill Clinton has been privately voicing support for placing his wife on the VP ticket for some weeks now, because he has calculated that this would be the best position from which Hillary could launch another presidential bid in either 2012 or 2016. While I don’t believe Clinton has the necessary CEO skills to be an effective and competent US president, I do agree with her husband that serving as Obama’s VP is her best path to winning a future Democratic nomination. Suffice to say that because I now believe the Clintons’ chances of being on the ticket have gone from slim to none, I would like to offer some suggestions as to what she could do instead.
Obviously one option would be for her to return to the US senate, where she has demonstrated the ability to be an effective legislator. She will probably win re-election to her senate seat easily in 2012 and could then run for president again in 2016, at the end of Obama’s potential second and final term in office. Clinton has learned a lot during the course of her failed bid for the Democratic nomination this year, and it’s likely she won’t repeat all those same mistakes again. She has also demonstrated that she has both the tenacity and stamina to run for the presidency, so she would be a formidable opponent for whoever the incumbent Democratic vice president happens to be – or any other Democratic candidate for that matter. But an incumbent VP still possesses more advantages in such contests. A second option I see for Clinton involves her giving up her presidential aspirations for good, much like Ted Kennedy did after he failed to unseat Jimmy Carter back in 1980.
Since that failed race for US president, Senator Kennedy has gone on to become the third-longest serving and, more importantly, one of the most distinguished and effective senators the US has ever known. He is widely respected and held in great esteem by liberals and conservatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties. I believe Clinton has the intelligence and political savvy to serve as a worthy successor to Kennedy’s mantle, should she choose to. Another option entails Clinton being willing to give up her political career and with it the national limelight that attends members of the US congress. But a career as a supreme court justice has a number of advantages. The biggest of these is she does not have to go out to raise money and campaign for reelection every six years, in addition to putting up with the sometimes harsh media scrutiny that attends any candidate for high political office. Another major plus is that supreme court justices serve for life in a position that commands the utmost in respect and dignity from the general public.
Personally, I think Clinton is both more capable and better suited to a career involving either of these last two options, or serving as Obama’s secretary of health and human services. I also think she could realise even greater personal satisfaction from any one of these three jobs than she would ever find in the job of US president. My only question is: Would Bill Clinton be satisfied with the prospect of never being able to return to the White House, except as invited guests? At this juncture I would have to guess the answer would be ‘probably not’, but it’s really a bit too soon to tell yet.
So if the Clintons are out, then who do I think Obama will pick to be his running mate for the general election? That’s a tough question. But I will nonetheless attempt to answer it anyway, since Obama’s choice as vice president will tell us a lot about how much the last few months of trench warfare with the Clintons has changed him as a presidential candidate. Given the Irish love for betting, I will give you some odds on the various different Democratic VP candidates that are being discussed in the news media, both in the US and abroad, as well as my personal assessment of these candidates and reasons why they might or might not be selected. I will then follow that up with my appraisal of a couple of ‘dark horse’ candidates that I think would be better choices than those pushed by the mainstream political media types. So now you know what to look forward to next week.
Charles Laffiteau is a lifelong US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is now completing his University of Texas MA dissertation in Dublin, following his graduation from DCU with a MA in Globalisation. He will begin a PhD research programme in Environmental Studies in October
