Commenting one of the many arguments against keeping Hillary Clinton off the ticket, Andrew Sullivan says this:
[T]he Clintons will create mischief wherever they are. If Obama becomes president without them they will do all they can to undermine, destroy, and polarize him. The question is how one deals with sociopaths like them. It’s not easy.
Now, I like to think I’m second to very few people in my distrust of the Clintons, and my distaste for the style of politics that they and the compatriots have exhibited since 1992, but I’ve got to think that this is just a little bit of an over-reaction.
Let’s say, as seems the case, Hillary Clinton isn’t the Democratic nominee in 2008 and isn’t the Vice-Presidential nominee either. Does Sullivan really think that Bill and Hillary will spend the election season and, if Obama wins in November, the next four or eight years in some Machiavellian scheme to undermine his administration ?
After all, there are plenty of other things that the two of them can do other than re-occupy the White House. Bill can continue with his incredibly lucrative speaking engagements. Hillary can stay in the Senate and become Majority Leader someday or, if she wants it, Governor of New York. For a lot of reasons, a future second-try at the White House would be out of the question, but there’s plenty to keep these two busy other than engaging in conspiracies that wouldn’t even make sense to someone who wears tinfoil hats.
Or, as James Joyner Alex Knapp puts it:
The Clintons have their faults, lord knows. But sociopathy isn’t one of them.
And this isn’t 15th Century England, with Lord William plotting to get his Queen on the throne.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Thanks for the link, but James didn’t post that….