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Clinton Must Audition

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By JAY BOOKMAN

Cox News Service

Published: June 8, 2008

ATLANTA - For a while there, I worried what it would take to get the message through to Hillary Clinton - maybe something like that scene out of "The Godfather," when the movie director wakes up with a horse's head in his bed?

Certainly, more subtle forms of communication didn't seem to be getting through. On Tuesday night, the last night of the primary process and with the race settled, she yet again passed up the opportunity to acknowledge the reality of Barack Obama's victory.

With that decision, the prospect of another 1980 loomed. That year, after Jimmy Carter defeated Ted Kennedy for the nomination, Kennedy ducked and dodged Carter on the stage of the convention, refusing on national TV to perform the healing ritual of a handshake. To this day, Carter attributes his subsequent defeat to Kennedy's pettiness.

This time, however, party leaders intervened, insisting on Clinton's withdrawal and clearing the way for the next step in the process, the selection of a vice presidential candidate. And even though Clinton has reportedly expressed interest in the post, she has given Obama every reason to be leery.

A vice presidential candidate has to be comfortable in the role of second banana, willing to set aside her own political identity and pledge enthusiastic loyalty to the policies and person of the presidential nominee. And little in Clinton's handling of this race suggests she would be comfortable in that role.

However, if her interest is genuine, the best way she can prove it is to submit herself to the traditional selection process, just like any other potential candidate. Some might argue that she has earned the right to forgo what amounts to an audition, but the position of vice president is that of the understudy, not the star. If the position is not beneath her, the process should not be beneath her either.

For Democrats, the continuing drama at the top of their ticket has no doubt been frustrating, because there's the aroma of real opportunity in the air.

In a recent poll of 45 Republican-held congressional districts around the country - GOP districts that George Bush carried by an average of 12 points in 2004 - voters favored Democrats over the Republican incumbents by an average margin of 50 percent to 43 percent.

That suggests the Democrats may be poised to pick up a lot of seats in Congress this year.

"The Republican brand is deeply hurt, and Republican incumbents face a serious challenge to hold onto their seats in an election driven by change," the Democracy Corps pollsters concluded.

That finding should be taken with a grain of salt, since Democracy Corps is led by longtime Democrats James Carville and Stanley Greenberg. But Republicans are reaching similar conclusions on their own.

In an unsigned editorial, editors of the conservative National Review label Obama "arguably the most left-wing major party presidential nominee ever." However, they also acknowledge the Republican Party's unpopularity and Obama's "formidable personal talents."

"If he wins with the kind of larger Democratic majorities he is likely to see in the House and Senate, he will be in the strongest position of any Democratic president since LBJ in 1964," the editorial notes. " ... Obama will be in a position to deal conservatism some of its worst setbacks in 40 years."

I disagree with that last point. History will note that the worst setbacks to modern conservatism have been dealt from within the movement, most prominently by George W. Bush and Karl Rove.

Jay Bookman writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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