Wednesday, February 20, 2008
HILLARY CLINTON
For Hillary Clinton, It Is Now Or Never
Over in the Corner, there's discussion of whether Hillary fights on until the last dog dies, or whether she hangs it up and looks for future opportunities.
Campaign Spot reader Richard makes another point, which goes along with the inevitable age issue.
If you're a Democrat, will the political landscape look better in 2012 than in 2008? Iraq will probably be resolved, one way or another, as a political issue. The economy will probably long since have rebounded from whatever troubles we're heading into (and if we're still in recession after four years, we're all in real trouble). This is the last cycle to take shots at "the incompetence of George W. Bush" and to bring up Katrina and Alberto Gonzales and Scooter Libby and Abramoff and Larry Craig.
If you're a Democrat who has been spending your life to be president, this is it. This is your cycle. Since election night 2006, Democrats have been convinced one of their own will be taking the oath of office next January. If politics is cyclical, the GOP will be due for a rebound, or at least better years, in two to four years.
If Hillary quits now, then four years from now she will be either trying to get the nomination again to take on an incumbent McCain or McCain's vice president, or challenging an incumbent President Obama. That task would be at least as difficult as the obstacles Ted Kennedy had against Jimmy Carter in 1980. And it would be much tougher and uglier task than she faces now in dealing with superdelegates or Michigan and Florida.
There is no long-term game. Either she's the party's nominee this year, or she won't ever be.
02/20 01:40 PM
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