"What does Hillary want?"
Sandy Huffaker/Cagle Cartoons
Instead of the warm, inclusive moment many Democrats were hoping for with Hillary Clinton's speech Tuesday night, she instead asked the question "What does Hillary want?", then proceeded to ignore an answer. While Barack Obama, who went over the top in delegates Tuesday, was using a large chunk of his speech to effusively praise her, Clinton not only couldn't bring herself to acknowledge her defeat, but she could barely bring herself to mention his name.
What's going on here? Whatever it is, we know it's probably too sly by half, and excessively Machiavellian. While watching her speech, I had thought perhaps she was insisting on having one last ego jolt for winning South Dakota before bowing out of the race, freeing her delegates and embracing Obama the next day. But in watching the maneuverings this morning, with even many of her supporters and allies scratching their heads, it's clear there is some ill-conceived strategy playing out.
Hillary's end game has been to blame the shortcomings of her campaign on sexism, even as her campaign has made subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle references to race. In the last couple of weeks, she has stopped saying publicly that Obama can't win the general election, but her team was still making that argument in private with superdelegates. Even after Obama became the presumptive nominee, her campaign manager introduced her Tuesday night as "the next president of the United States."
Meanwhile, she makes clear that would be open to — no, is owed — being on the ticket as vice president, and surrogates are carrying out some kind of petition strategy. So what is she saying — that if she is not the VP choice her supporters will bring chaos to the convention, boycott the election or even vote for John McCain? Is she threatening the Democratic Party — or the country?
If so, it's certainly hypocritical. She has been saying that she shouldn't be forced by party leaders or the media to exit the race, and now she is using the same tactics to try to force her way onto the ticket. If she had been the presumptive nominee, does anyone think she would let Obama declare himself her veep? Of course not. She would tell him, "I won — deal with it."
And if someone in his own party could bully Obama, how does he answer critics who say he wouldn't be able to stand up to I'm-a-Dinner-Jacket, as Maureen Dowd calls the Iranian leader.
So what does Hillary want? I'm afraid to find out.