Hillary Clinton and the Huckabee Model

What would I do if I were in Hillary’s shoes?

Probably say, “Ow ow ow, these shoes are too small! And they are for a girl! I will likely be beaten up.”

And while we’re on the subject, what would I do if I were in Hillary’s political position? As a former basement-level Clinton staff member who wishes happiness and the taste of victory for my former campaign-mates, and as a voter who wishes to see the Democrats take the general election by storm, I have some conflicting feelings, as I am sure do many others.

I have long been an advocate for the idea that anyone who wants to run for office can, and indeed probably should. Additional voices and more choices are almost always more beneficial than not (especially if IRV is the method by which people are elected, but I digress). Along those lines, while I preferred a Ned Lamont win in 2006, I maintained it was Joe Lieberman’s right to run for whatever office, and under whichever banner, he chose. Likewise, while I did not vote for Ralph Nader in 2004, nor was I one of the millions who gave themselves ulcers trying to wish him away. In the end, it is the voters who get to decide who has an “effect” on a given race. If Lieberman or Nader running for office is such a terrible thing, people can simply opt not to vote for them (in Lieberman’s case, the voters of Connecticut seemed to think it not so terrible).

Which brings us to the dilemma posed by the onward-lurching candidacy of Sen. Clinton. Though it is clear her chances for the nomination dance on the event horizon of a black hole, she is as much within her rights to soldier on as Sen. Obama. As someone who wishes to keep the GOP out of the White House, though, I cannot help but lose sleep over this increasingly damaging contest, and wish it would simply end one way or the other.

But what if it were me? What if I had come so far, worked so hard, and in the end found myself clinging to a single-digit percent chance to become president, while risking irreparable damage to my party’s prospects in the fall? I suppose it’s impossible to fully grasp what that must feel like – I imagine the only ones who can relate to Sen. Clinton at this point in time would be Al Gore (who actually won) and John Kerry (who thought he had won until late in the evening).

I can only postulate for my current state of mind, but it is one that has great sympathy for Sen. Clinton. Knowing what I know about myself, I would think that I would, too, carry on my campaign, but perhaps follow a model similar to Mike Huckabee’s – refraining from attacking the inevitable nominee while remaining in the race to a) gather influence in the party and b) be on hand in case the other guy gets hit by a bus before the convention (remember, Gov. Huckabee continued to score wins even after is was fairly obvious that McCain would be his party’s nominee). This assumes, of course, that I would be more concerned with defeating McCain than with my own personal electoral success.

It also assumes that I found my primary opponent to be an acceptable alternative to myself. One would imagine that there would be few takers had Mike Gravel won the nomination, for example. But it is absurd to think that Sen. Obama would somehow be an untenable choice for the Democrats, either as a nominee or eventual president. Even if the worst that is said about him were true (that he is elitist or too inexperienced), his smarts and guiding principles would still easily trump the foggy agenda of John McCain.

But it could well be that Sen. Clinton does not share this view, that she truly believes Sen. Obama would do more harm than good. This seems to me to be highly unlikely, especially given what I understand about her willingness to cross party lines, her subtle grasp of foreign policy, her pragmatic approach to government, and her empathy for those whom our society has left behind – all reasons for which she had my initial support, and all things I feel that Sen. Obama shares with her, at least a sufficient degree.

So if she does believe Sen. Obama would be a lousy president, what is her basis for that belief? His willingness to meet with enemies? His health care plan? His purple-state electoral strategy? Truly, it is difficult for me to fathom that these would be deal breakers.

If she were merely being Huckabian, she would focus purely on her own qualifications and policy proposals, leaving aside all attempts to wound Sen. Obama. But she is clearly not following this particular Arkansas governor’s example, and despite her solid win in Pennsylvania, her chances remain almost non-existent. This makes both of her possible mindsets quite troubling: either she has a grossly distorted and fundamentally flawed perception of Obama as a potential president, or it really is just about her. I hold out hope there is a third way, as it were, that makes all of this make sense.

I will always support her right to run, as I support anyone’s right to run, but it may be at the expense of my stomach lining.

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