Why would Hillary settle for VP when she could go after top job?
By BOGDAN KIPLING Thu, Oct 21 - 4:53 AM
The latest buzz flitting among the habituates of Georgetown salons in Washington is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will switch jobs with Vice-President Joe Biden and take his place on the Democratic ticket in 2012.
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As a rumour, this is intriguing. As common sense, it doesn’t pass Logic 101. Why, after all, would the world’s top diplomat want to chug from John Nance Garner’s "bucket of warm spit" when she could be sipping a Pimm’s Cup in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2013?
With the economy predictably still in the dumps and light years away from the Clinton-era glow of the 1990s, the time and circumstances should be perfect for Hillary to challenge Barack at the start of 2012.
When the moment arrives, I would bet that smart money in the Democratic Party will fill her coffers like water rushing over the Hoover Dam.
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The insiders say both Clintons have the bitter realization that they were outmanoeuvred in the Democratic primaries by the upstart from Chicago because she was fed terrible advice by campaign aides working for the other side. Several of these individuals, the Clintons are convinced, were Obama moles.
This had to be her bitter cup. In truth, though, only Hillary’s belief in her "grand destiny" allowed her to accept Mr. Obama’s offer to be Secretary of State. It was a stripped-down post because Mr. Obama had already named four special envoys to the Middle East, historically Washington’s key area of foreign policy.
It was a clever play for Mr. Obama. Her Secretary of State position pushed Bill Clinton off the public stage and rendered him all but mute in voicing any criticism of the Obama White House.
There is every reason to believe that the Clintons will deliver a come-uppance to the Obamas in 2012. By that time, Hillary and Bill Clinton will stand out as accomplished practitioners of statecraft in contrast to the amateurish Mr. Obama and his buffoonish advisers pushing a leftist agenda in a country that loves the middle or even conservative road.
A longtime Clinton insider says the couple is prepared to move their governing philosophy even more to the moderate centre than President Clinton did after Republicans crushed the Democrats and took control of Congress in the 1994 mid-term elections.
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Political gaming may fascinate wonks, but realistic appraisal of what is likely to happen is all that counts. Though never a Clintons’ fan, I see no reason to revise my old prediction that Hillary would seek the presidency.
When Hillary runs, I wrote beginning a dozen years ago, Hillary wins. And she would have, but for the silliest of all reasons when choosing a nation’s leader: Barack Obama’s charisma trumped Hillary Clinton’s substance in the 2008 nomination contest.
Here is to betting Hillary will be all smiles and look years younger when she delivers her inaugural address from the west steps of the Capitol in January 2013.
Bogdan Kipling is a Canadian journalist in Washington.