Correctly Impolitic

What will Hillary do? Will she ever drop out?  Will she be the Vice Presidential candidate? Will she go back to the Senate and become what Teddy Kennedy would want her to be - a real leader. I don’t think anyone can predict her future - or the next few days.  If I had been her campaign manager I would have suggested she fly to Minneapolis, appear with Obama and endorse him, then fly to NY or Washington and appear with her constituency.  She didn’t and I’m not her manager and they are not as smart as me.

What went wrong?  All one needs to do is see who is still appearing for her.  Terry McAuliffe is still haranguing the media about their treatment of the First Lady,  He was on TV this morning talking about awaiting his marching orders. What marching orders.  He is one of the people who has been calling the shots for quite some time.  He’s the Chair of the campaign.  What kind of marching does he do?  I’d like to see him appear dressed in one of those marching bandleader outfits carrying a baton. That is a perfect fit. Terry is a slime. And I don’t mean to denigrate bandleaders with this kind of association. I was going more for the picture than the profession.  (and I mean slime in the nicest possible way).

Part of the problem is that all those people close to her thought the campaign would be over in February. I guess they have suspended both reality and the calendar in hopes that something will happen to change the outcome of the primaries. Otherwise what are the benefits of waiting until who knows when, to do who knows what.

Here’s what I find most interesting about this whole thing.  Hillary knows what it’s like to be the Vice President.  At least she understands how the President’s people treat the Vice President’s people.  She has been there for the decision making process.  She has seen who gets stuck with what and how decisions that are made in the Vice President’s office have to be vetted by the President’s office.  She knows first hand about who gets stuck with whatever the President doesn’t care to do. In the Clinton Administration the President allowed Vice President Gore to ‘reinvent’ government.  I’m still not sure what the overall impact of the reinvention had on actual cost or resource savings.  I do know that they gave away a great many tiny hammers as rewards for supposedly finding better ways to do things, but I’m not even sure the ways were better.  For example, the Vice President’s office decided that it was foolish for the United States Information Agency to be independent from the State Department - they both involved international diplomacy so why not combine them?  The fact that the cultures (USIA decisions were made in a timely manner because they involved people to people diplomacy, and State Dept. decisions required weeks of clearance because their impact was government to government), didn’t matter to the ‘reinventors’ (I know their names if you want them).  There were no cost or personnel savings.   In fact, it was quite the opposite.  This reinvention, which combined all the jobs in the geographic area offices, rendered the U.S. Government without a public diplomacy effort. And look at the results- the rest of the world hates us.  You see, USIA officers spoke the language of the country to which they were posted.  State officers usually did not.  The USIA officers worked with the local media  organizations, and managed educational and cultural exchanges.  Jobs the State officers found beneath contempt. (Are you getting the picture?) I don’t want to blame the Vice President’s office entirely; Jesse Helms-that great Statesman and bigot, in cohoots with Madeline Albright, who was the Secretary of State, is responsible for allowing and encouraging it to happen.  She wanted USIA resources - the cars and drivers, and people and programs to be part of her empire.  But had it not been for the West Wing  trying to find the Vice President a real job, we might have an easier time functioning in the world. And maybe some people must have gotten little hammers to treasure.

My point is this.  Why would Hilary want to be in a pretty much do-nothing job.  Yes, you get to act as the President of the Senate and break ties, but she’s already a Senator and she knows that this is pretty much meaningless.  The VP’s plane isn’t as nice, the motorcade isn’t as long, the President’s kids don’t talk to your kids - although I guess Chelsea could babysit.  So why would you go from the possibility of being a Teddy Kennedy to being a … I can’t even remember their names.  Why would you knowingly desire to be Second Fiddle to anyone. Maybe her indicating that it’s a job she wants is just a ruse to actually get something she wants.  I don’t know what that can be but I assume the mystery will be solved by the time Convention rolls around … or maybe she’ll just keep running.