America in Transition

Let’s find the right word or phrase to describe what is going on in what is now known as Hillaryland.  Is it “denial” — as in an inability to face reality?  Is it “tactical willfulness” — trying to wrest concessions from Obama in exchange for letting him try to unify the Democratic Party?  Is it “vindictiveness” — as in wanting to undermine the value of the prize that he has won and that has eluded her?

Most commentary and analysis today suggests elements of all three.  What, however, has little credibility is campaign director Terry McAuliffe’s suggestion that Hillary was too busy in recent days to give any thought to what she would do once Obama passed the threshold of delegates needed to ensure his nomination.  It has been clear for weeks that Hillary could not win more elected delegates than Obama.  Plenty of time to think things through.
Does Hillary really want the Vice Presidential nomination, or just to be offered it?  The acid-tongued (but entertaining) Maureen Dowd puts it this way:

Clintonologists know that Hillary is up to something, but they aren’t sure what… [B]y broadcasting that she’s open to being Obama’s running mate, she puts public pressure on him similar to the sort of pressure Walter Mondale was under from rampaging feminists when he put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket. Mondale ended up seeming henpecked, as Obama would seem if he caved to the women who say they will write in Hillary’s name or vote for anti-choice McCain before they’d vote for Obama.

Hillary certainly knows that, despite her strength in the swing-state primaries, she would not help Obama as a running mate.  It is also not a role that she would be comfortable with.  By elimination of other possibilities, one is sadly (but not surprisingly) left to conclude that Hillary is feeding the rumor that she would accept the Vice Presidential nomination in order to weaken the man she still regards as her opponent — even after he has won.

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