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WASHINGTON — She ain't no Sherman.
Hillary Clinton coyly insisted Thursday that she was not seeking the vice-presidential nomination, even though her supporters have been aggressively pushing for just that.
“While Senator Clinton has made clear throughout this process that she will do whatever she can to elect a Democrat to the White House, she is not seeking the vice-presidency, and no one speaks for her but her,” declared a statement released from her campaign headquarters – if that's what it still is. “The choice here is Senator [Barack] Obama's and his alone.”
The words, while intriguing, say little.
There's a way to quash speculation of political ambition. Many Republicans wanted William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union's greatest general in the Civil War after Ulysses S. Grant, as their presidential nominee in 1884. But unlike Grant, Sherman had no desire to be president. So he released a statement: “If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve.” The Republicans decided to look elsewhere.
Contrast that with the studied ambiguity of Ms. Clinton's statement. She does not seek to serve, but is prepared to serve.
During the past three days, we have witnessed an orchestrated campaign by Clinton surrogates and supporters to pressure Mr. Obama into offering her the vice-presidential nomination.
Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel under Bill Clinton and a senior aide to Ms. Clinton, has launched a petition to that end. Mr. Davis said when he told Ms. Clinton about the petition, she neither discouraged nor encouraged the idea.
“If he doesn't have her, I think he can still win,” Mr. Davis declared. “With her on the ticket, he can't be beat.”
This is unprecedented. While Lyndon Johnson sought to be John F. Kennedy's vice-president, those negotiations took place in the final days leading up to the 1960 Democratic National Convention, and they occurred behind those perpetually closed doors.
The Draft-Hillary-for-VP movement is open, public and forceful.
Congressman Charles Rangel, a devoted supporter of Ms. Clinton, is also pushing to get her the second spot.
“She's run a great campaign and even though she'll be a great senator, she has a lot of followers that obviously Obama doesn't have,” he argued this week. Other prominent supporters of the vice-presidential campaign include her national finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, and Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, who has urged the Congressional Black Caucus to join the cause.
And Ms. Clinton herself, on Tuesday, reportedly said “I am open to it,” when she was asked during a conference call with New York congressional leaders whether she was prepared to serve as vice-president.
In essence, Thursday's communiqué is simply a reaffirmation of that statement.
The campaign to force Ms. Clinton onto the ticket has probably done her cause more harm than good, however, which may be another reason she issued the release.
Ms. Clinton's many supporters are deeply disappointed at her narrow loss, and are convinced that unless she is the vice-presidential nominee, women, Latino and lower-income voters will desert the party, handing the White House to Republican nominee John McCain.
But that very pressure works against Mr. Obama to choose her. If it appears that he was forced to bring Ms. Clinton onto the ticket despite his own misgivings, voters will ask, then how will he stand up to the blustery dictators from Tehran to Havana with whom he has already agreed to negotiate?
That said, the release does offer Mr. Obama some political cover, if he decides to go with another vice-presidential pick, either from inside or outside the ranks of the Clinton wing of the party.
And it ensures that Ms. Clinton will greet his choice, whatever it may be, with grace and renewed promises of support. Democratic nominees for president have sometimes fared far less well at the hands of their vanquished opponents. When Jimmy Carter finally prevailed over Senator Edward Kennedy's challenge in 1980, he couldn't even get his foe to shake hands onstage.
Mr. Obama made it clear Thursday that he does not intend to be railroaded, and insisted that Ms. Clinton is not the one doing the railroading.
“We're not going to be rushed into it,” he said in an interview with NBC. “I don't think Senator Clinton expects a quick decision and I don't even know that she's necessarily interested in that.”
Still, it must be frustrating for him. Even after he has secured the Democratic presidential nomination, Ms. Clinton continues to dominate the narrative.
And that may be the best reason for him to choose another. Ms. Clinton has this peculiar ability to suck all the political oxygen out of a room.
Mr. Obama may need to look elsewhere, just so that he can breathe.
With a report from Associated Press
