skippy the bush kangaroo

Saturday, March 29, 2008

plus a year's supply of turtle wax, and a home version of our game!

joe gandelman of the moderate voice reports that some democrats want hillary clinton as gov. of new york, as a "consolation prize":

newsweek’s jonathan alter reports that some democrats seek to dangle the new york state governorship in front of senator hillary clinton as a consolation prize in the hopes that she won’t battle front-runner barack obama all the way to the convention:

some democrats terrified that their bloody primary campaign will doom them in november are floating a consolation prize for hillary clinton: governor of new york.

the travails of new york gov. david paterson have opened up a new potential career path for clinton, according to well-informed democratic party insiders who refused to allow their names to be used when discussing contingencies. they want her to consider the option if she concludes after the april 22 pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake barack obama for the party’s presidential nomination. hillary clinton, while fully committed to continuing her presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while bill clinton rejected it out of hand.

with former new york mayor rudy giuliani now reported by the new york post to be weighing a race for governor, voters could see a clinton-giuliani matchup after all.
it would be the match-up many expected (a) when clinton ran for senator (squelched by giuliani’s health problems) and (b) when giuliani ran for president (the conventional wisdom — for a while — was that it would be clinton versus giuliani in the general election).
joe eschews musing on the value of the idea itself, in favor of wondering whose big idea it was:

the key to this story is: who sourced it? did it come from someone sympathetic to the clinton campaign or a clinton associate? or did it come from someone close to the obama campaign, or democrats who never really liked clinton and want her out now asap both due the political train-wreck-in-denver scenario that seems closer every day and the fact that they never really supported her anyway?

it’s not a small question. because if the story is based on sources that didn’t like clinton, then it should also be seen as part and parcel of the ongoing attempt to have her quit the race early. for the early part of the campaign the motif was clinton’s “inevitability.” in this phase, in many quarters, it’s obama’s “inevitability.”

apart from that, this is a fascinating report since it again underscores the fears among many democrats that while clinton and obama are battering each other john mccain has a big head start in unifying his party, doing image-enhancing photo-ops, campaigning for the general election, working to raise funds for his party, and blasting the democratic party and obama and clinton.
we think that this story, along w/the idea that somehow al gore would go to the convention and emerge as the nominee, is simply a result of the "fog of war" of the campaign...a lot of "who shot john" (as judge judy would say) that is full of sound and fury and signifying...nothing (as someone other than judge judy once said).

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posted by skippy at 9:59 AM |

1 Comments:

I thought it was Lee Press-on Nails and the home version of the game.
commented by Anonymous Kulkuri, 7:18 AM PDT  

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