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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>August 7, 2008, 2:37 pm
What Does Hillary Want?
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in Unity, N.H., in June. (Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
Senator Hillary Clinton asked the question herself on the night of the last primaries in early June: “What does Hillary want?”
That’s still a bit of a mystery, particularly as she and Senator Barack Obama negotiate over her role, and possibly that of her husband, at the Democratic convention in Denver and beyond.
Mr. Obama has given Mrs. Clinton a speaking role on the Tuesday night of the convention. But she made it clear in a recent chat with supporters — which is now on YouTube — that she is steeped in negotiations over how to salve the wounds of her disappointed supporters so that they don’t stray in November. She suggested she may allow her name to be placed in nomination, and also that her supporters don’t need her permission to do that on their own.
It is not clear whether Mrs. Clinton is also bargaining for her husband and what role he may play at the convention or in the fall campaign; Mr. Clinton has talked with Mr. Obama since the end of the primaries.
There is no new news so far today, as Mrs. Clinton wrote in a live Web chat on her personal blog.
“While no decisions have been made yet, I will make sure that we keep you up to date and involved with all of the Convention activity,” she wrote.
Mr. Obama also told reporters today that some matters were unresolved. “As is true in all conventions, we’re still working out the mechanics, the coordination,” he said while flying to his home in Chicago.
In the video, taken July 31 at a unity event in Palo Alto, Mrs. Clinton described her bargaining position at the table:
“We will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected,” she said. “I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.”
Whatever she is asking for, she described the process aptly:
“It’s as old as Greek drama,” she said.
She was referring to the “catharsis” that her supporters are seeking after enduring her roller-coaster ride through the primaries.
But she could have been referring to the Clintons themselves, the leading lady and erstwhile leading man of Democratic politics, and their knack for remaining at the center of the drama even if they do not hold center stage. That is evident in the outpouring of comments on The Caucus and elsewhere in the blogosphere.
The Clintons are entering an extremely sensitive stage of the election cycle _ and of their ongoing process to shape their legacies. It is not just about their roles at the convention or the campaign but about how history will treat them both and will in turn influence her future.
While the video of Mrs. Clinton plays across cable TV and the Internet, a new video of her husband, in an interview with ABC News, is also playing in its own endless loop. He was not quite able to say that Senator Barack Obama, the party’s all-but-certain nominee, is qualified to be president.
Mr. Clinton appears and reappears, swatting at the same furies he has tried to bat back all year _ that he used race in subtle and not-so-subtle ways during the primaries. “I am not a racist,” he says. He makes clear that any friendship with Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a leading black politician who despaired of the Clintons during the primary, is over.
Mrs. Clinton came very close to winning the nomination, of course. She won eight of the last 13 primaries, back when she was warning in a full-throated voice that she would be a better general-election candidate than Mr. Obama.
Interestingly, as she surely knows, she remains just as popular among Democrats these days as Mr. Obama, despite his having been campaigning for two months as the party nominee. The most recent New York Times poll puts her favorability rating among Democrats at 70 percent and Mr. Obama’s at 66 percent.
Now Mr. Obama is struggling in the polls to maintain parity with Senator John McCain. In the video, she calls for the party to unify behind Mr. Obama, even as she nurses the disappointment of her supporters _ and carefully shields any feelings of vindication.
At one point, a woman asks Mrs. Clinton what happens if her name is placed in nomination at the convention and she actually wins.
“That’s not going to happen,” Mrs. Clinton replies. “What we want to have happen is for Senator Obama to be nominated by a unified convention of Democrats. And as I have said, the best way I think _ and I could be wrong, but the best way I think _ to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they’ve had a role and that their legitimacy has been validated. It’s as old as Greek drama. There is a catharsis. I mean, everybody comes and they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that’s all to the good. Because then, everybody can then go (whew), great, now, let’s go out and win. That’s what we want people to feel.”
Her goal, she says, is this: “We do not want any Democrat in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, ‘I’m just not satisfied, I’m not happy.’ That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
Her supporters in the video seem a bit puzzled by this process. Is it normal, one asks, for all of this to be negotiated back and forth?
Mrs. Clinton responds:
“If you look at recent history, I have moved more quickly and done more on behalf of my opponent than comparable candidates have. Most of them didn’t endorse until the convention, Teddy Kennedy, or Gary Hart, Jerry Brown, just a lot of people held out until the convention, kept their delegates, often waged platform or rules or credentials fights.”
But then she seems to give a green light to her supporters to go ahead and make whatever mischief they might:
“I’ve made it very clear that I’m supporting Senator Obama and we’re working cooperatively on a lot of different matters,” she says. “But delegates can decide to do this on their own, they don’t need permission.”
Still, she concludes, “it would be better if we had a plan and we put it in place and executed it.”</div>
Link
What Does Hillary Want?
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in Unity, N.H., in June. (Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
Senator Hillary Clinton asked the question herself on the night of the last primaries in early June: “What does Hillary want?”
That’s still a bit of a mystery, particularly as she and Senator Barack Obama negotiate over her role, and possibly that of her husband, at the Democratic convention in Denver and beyond.
Mr. Obama has given Mrs. Clinton a speaking role on the Tuesday night of the convention. But she made it clear in a recent chat with supporters — which is now on YouTube — that she is steeped in negotiations over how to salve the wounds of her disappointed supporters so that they don’t stray in November. She suggested she may allow her name to be placed in nomination, and also that her supporters don’t need her permission to do that on their own.
It is not clear whether Mrs. Clinton is also bargaining for her husband and what role he may play at the convention or in the fall campaign; Mr. Clinton has talked with Mr. Obama since the end of the primaries.
There is no new news so far today, as Mrs. Clinton wrote in a live Web chat on her personal blog.
“While no decisions have been made yet, I will make sure that we keep you up to date and involved with all of the Convention activity,” she wrote.
Mr. Obama also told reporters today that some matters were unresolved. “As is true in all conventions, we’re still working out the mechanics, the coordination,” he said while flying to his home in Chicago.
In the video, taken July 31 at a unity event in Palo Alto, Mrs. Clinton described her bargaining position at the table:
“We will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected,” she said. “I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.”
Whatever she is asking for, she described the process aptly:
“It’s as old as Greek drama,” she said.
She was referring to the “catharsis” that her supporters are seeking after enduring her roller-coaster ride through the primaries.
But she could have been referring to the Clintons themselves, the leading lady and erstwhile leading man of Democratic politics, and their knack for remaining at the center of the drama even if they do not hold center stage. That is evident in the outpouring of comments on The Caucus and elsewhere in the blogosphere.
The Clintons are entering an extremely sensitive stage of the election cycle _ and of their ongoing process to shape their legacies. It is not just about their roles at the convention or the campaign but about how history will treat them both and will in turn influence her future.
While the video of Mrs. Clinton plays across cable TV and the Internet, a new video of her husband, in an interview with ABC News, is also playing in its own endless loop. He was not quite able to say that Senator Barack Obama, the party’s all-but-certain nominee, is qualified to be president.
Mr. Clinton appears and reappears, swatting at the same furies he has tried to bat back all year _ that he used race in subtle and not-so-subtle ways during the primaries. “I am not a racist,” he says. He makes clear that any friendship with Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a leading black politician who despaired of the Clintons during the primary, is over.
Mrs. Clinton came very close to winning the nomination, of course. She won eight of the last 13 primaries, back when she was warning in a full-throated voice that she would be a better general-election candidate than Mr. Obama.
Interestingly, as she surely knows, she remains just as popular among Democrats these days as Mr. Obama, despite his having been campaigning for two months as the party nominee. The most recent New York Times poll puts her favorability rating among Democrats at 70 percent and Mr. Obama’s at 66 percent.
Now Mr. Obama is struggling in the polls to maintain parity with Senator John McCain. In the video, she calls for the party to unify behind Mr. Obama, even as she nurses the disappointment of her supporters _ and carefully shields any feelings of vindication.
At one point, a woman asks Mrs. Clinton what happens if her name is placed in nomination at the convention and she actually wins.
“That’s not going to happen,” Mrs. Clinton replies. “What we want to have happen is for Senator Obama to be nominated by a unified convention of Democrats. And as I have said, the best way I think _ and I could be wrong, but the best way I think _ to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they’ve had a role and that their legitimacy has been validated. It’s as old as Greek drama. There is a catharsis. I mean, everybody comes and they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that’s all to the good. Because then, everybody can then go (whew), great, now, let’s go out and win. That’s what we want people to feel.”
Her goal, she says, is this: “We do not want any Democrat in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, ‘I’m just not satisfied, I’m not happy.’ That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
Her supporters in the video seem a bit puzzled by this process. Is it normal, one asks, for all of this to be negotiated back and forth?
Mrs. Clinton responds:
“If you look at recent history, I have moved more quickly and done more on behalf of my opponent than comparable candidates have. Most of them didn’t endorse until the convention, Teddy Kennedy, or Gary Hart, Jerry Brown, just a lot of people held out until the convention, kept their delegates, often waged platform or rules or credentials fights.”
But then she seems to give a green light to her supporters to go ahead and make whatever mischief they might:
“I’ve made it very clear that I’m supporting Senator Obama and we’re working cooperatively on a lot of different matters,” she says. “But delegates can decide to do this on their own, they don’t need permission.”
Still, she concludes, “it would be better if we had a plan and we put it in place and executed it.”</div>
Link
