What Does Hillary Want?

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 7:03 AM on June 4, 2008.

I was talking to some friends early last night, and they asked what I expected Hillary Clinton to do and say when she took the stage in NYC. At that point, it was already clear that Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination, so it was really a matter of how Clinton would handle the end of a long, difficult process, and how Clinton would address coming this close to winning, before finishing just shy of her goal.

I was actually pretty confident that I knew exactly what Clinton would do. Just a few hours earlier, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s right hand man and enthusiastic surrogate, told a national television audience that once Obama reaches the magic number of 2,118 delegates, Clinton will “congratulate him and call him the nominee.” Well, Obama had reached and passed the threshold. The race was over. It was easy to imagine Clinton going out on a high note, reminding everyone of her class and dignity, and taking the initial steps to heal some wounds, rebuild some bridges, and bring like-minded allies back together.

But if Clinton has proved anything over the last 16 months of campaigning, it’s that she’s a fighter. And last night, the lights may have gone out on her presidential chances, but her drive to keep going anyway remains strong. Indeed, last night, Clinton’s remarks weren’t conciliatory, they were defiant.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage before supporters Tuesday night and finally asked the question that so many people had been posing: “What does Hillary want?”

She listed some policy goals and demanded respect for her supporters. But she did not really answer her own question, demurely suggesting instead that it was up to her backers to advise her by e-mail on what she should do next.

What the crowd gathered at Baruch College in Manhattan for her final primary night celebration wanted was clear, from those outside chanting “Denver, Denver,” urging her to go all the way to the party’s convention in August, to those inside interrupting her speech with shouts of “Yes, she will! Yes, she will!”

And while Mrs. Clinton reminisced about her campaign and talked of a need to unite the party, she did not concede, and indeed did not acknowledge that her rival, Senator Barack Obama, had passed the threshold of delegates needed to secure the nomination.

She personally posed the question: “What does Hillary want?” But once her speech was over, the answer to the inquiry was less than clear.

She, of course, literally answered the question…

“Well, I want what I have always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential. And I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible.”

…but that doesn’t offer any indications of what Clinton is actually prepared to do now that she’s lost the race for the nomination.

In this sense, we’re in the midst of a vaguely surreal campaign dynamic. For nearly a year and a half, the biggest hurdle between Obama and the nomination was Hillary Clinton. Now that the race is over and Obama’s the nominee, his next biggest challenge is still Hillary Clinton.

Indeed, for those of us expecting a graceful farewell speech, Clinton’s remarks were a bit of a curveball. It was almost as if news of Obama’s victory hadn’t reached them yet. McAuliffe introduced her as the “next president of the United States.” Clinton congratulated Obama, not for winning, but for running a great race. At one point she said, “No matters what happens in this race…” as if the race remains unresolved. Clinton added that she would be “consulting with supporters and party leaders, to determine how to move forward,” as if she was still pondering how to launch a comeback. Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” played as Clinton smiled and waved. The Clinton campaign sent an email to supporters referring to the campaign in the present tense.

As Dana Goldstein put it, “The more I think about it, the more it seems that Hillary’s entire speech was manufactured to rile up her supporters — instead of priming them to shift their allegiance to Obama. Yes, there’s a situation with Michigan and Florida. But is it really fair for Clinton to claim that her 18 million supporters nationwide have been made ‘invisible?’ Who’s supposed to be the bad guy here, scary Howard Dean? Clinton is offering more fighting rhetoric. But the fight should be over.”

Ezra added, “In the first episode of the BBC comedy Coupling, Steve decides he’s going to break up with his partner Jane. He steels up his courage, strides over to her, and makes his pitch. ‘I’m going to put this very simply. It’s over between us,’ he says. She looks at him quizzically. ‘You want us to split up?’ she asks. ‘Yes,’ replies Steve. ‘Yes I do.’ She looks at him sweetly. ‘I don’t accept.’ Tonight, the Democratic Party essentially told Clinton that it was over. Obama crossed the magic delegate threshold and captured, for all intents and purposes, the nomination. Clinton had run a remarkable race, and come inches from securing the nomination, but she had lost. And tonight, Clinton took the stage in New York, and said, in effect, ‘I don’t accept.’”

Dana Milbank said Clinton “graciously pretended to win.”

I suspect this is about two angles — retiring the campaign’s considerable debt and pushing for the VP slot. We’ll learn more about both soon enough.

Stepping back, though, Clinton must be severely disappointed, but no one, anywhere, can say she didn’t fight aggressively enough or work hard enough. She put everything she had on the line, and came extremely close to pulling it off. Every time Clinton would get knocked down, she’d get right up again, proving that her reputation for toughness and tenacity is well deserved.

The race just ended 12 hours ago, so it’s going to take some time to make good-faith efforts to restore some party unity. Once Clinton concedes — which, one assumes, should be fairly soon — I just hope both camps remember that respect is a two-way street. Obama sounded the right note last night, acknowledging Clinton’s exemplary record and steadfast spirit. Clinton may have chosen a different path last night, but I’m confident that she’ll sound a similar note. Any minute now.

Tagged as: hillary clinton, 2008 election