The Tempest

Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Opinion

When I saw Bill Clinton in UC Davis the other week, I only counted one swipe at Barack Obama, and it was about health care. Surveying the past week's headlines, it seems that night in Davis was an exemption rather than an indication of the Clinton's camp greater strategy. Fierce rivalry between the two democratic front runners has put the former president on the frontlines, pulling few punches, to very mixed results. Bill's visibility has backfired, in the sense we are asking ourselves again what role he would have as first spouse in a white house with Hillary as commander in chief. Do we perceive them as inseparable, a two-headed political force of nature? When Bill Clinton invokes the success of his administration to make a case for Hillary's campaign, can we expect her to own up to his shortcomings? These questions would perhaps be easier to answer if the infamous White House papers of the Clinton years were released from under lock and key at the Clinton presidential library. Bill Clinton has stated consistently that he is pro- transparency in all levels of government, but that principle doesn't seem to jive with his reluctance to release those papers, opting to withhold them from the public until 2012. So why not release them now, when they are more pertinent to the interests of the American public than ever? The logical assumption is that the presentation of the White House documents would hurt Hillary's campaign. All this is making an Obama presidency easier to swallow, as evidenced by the South Carolina primary of the past week.

The media frenzy surrounding the tensions between the Clinton and Obama camps have demoted John Edwards to second tier status, who has just announced his departure from the race. Edwards has been marginalized by the media, due to a disappointing turnout from the early primaries. While nobody expected the former North Carolina senator to pull an upset, there have been rumors of a potential team up as Obama's vice presidential running mate should Obama receive the Democratic nomination. Admittedly, Edwards has not officially supported Obama, but this theory is given credence by a newfound public solidarity between the two. An Obama-Edwards ticket may be particularly tantalizing to the anti-Hillary constituency, and has a very real shot of making a dent come this November.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools