Clinton Isn't Going Anywhere

National Review Online: Despite Her Loss, We Will Continue To See The N.Y. Sen. In The Spotlight

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Kathryn Jean Lopez.

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At the National Building Museum on Saturday, Hillary Clinton promised her supporters: “You’ll always find me on the frontlines of democracy fighting for the future.”

Put another way: “I’ll be back.”

Throughout the Clinton campaign, I’ve had this pang of anger that Barbara Olson couldn’t weigh in on Hillary’s run for the White House. Barbara could see the “Hillary for President” signs. There were too many signs in Hillary’s life pointing in the direction of the Oval Office for herself. Moreover, Barbara knew the Clintons didn’t have it in their blood to disappear from the national political stage.

Barbara Olson, of course, was murdered in the plane en route to California that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

In her book, “Hell to Pay”, which chronicled Hillary’s pre-Senate political experience and ideology, Barbara wrote:

At one of her lunches with John Robert Starr at Little Rock’s Café Saint Moritz in 1989, there was a lapse in the conversation about Bill’s ambitions for national office. Starr took the opportunity to ask Hillary what she wanted to do. “She leaned toward me,” he recounted, “eyes ablaze, and said in as an intense voice as I have ever heard, ‘I want to run something!’”

As a young law professor, Bill Clinton had confided in friends that he recognized that Hillary was putting her own political future into escrow by coming to Arkansas. Now the long years of waiting are over. The Monica Lewinsky scandal has, ironically, made Hillary one of the most popular women in the world. She has become a celebrated and sympathetic popular figure in another ironic turn of fate: The most powerful woman in the world cast as a victim. As her popularity rose, as the crowds became larger and more enthusiastic, Hillary could think about fulfilling her ambition of power.

Long before Hillary announced she was considering a run for the U.S. Senate from New York, knowledgeable Democrats connected to the White House and on the Hill were talking about Hillary’s real ambition to run something big. Very big. One possibility I thought of was the World Bank. Her college roommate and close friend Jan Piercy was already there.

Though a multinational panel governs the bank, the president generally comes from its largest shareholder, the United States.

As president of the World Bank, Hillary would have tens of billions of dollars at her fingertips to effect social experimentation on a global scale. And she could be appointed without having to go through either the nastiness of a Senate confirmation process or the untidiness of a popular election. . . .

But the real question is: Would that be enough?

Hillary in office - any office - will finally be free from the troubled trajectory of her husband’s career. She will be free to take back her old name. She will be free to create her own legacy. Divorce or at least some degree of separation will allow her to establish herself as a world stateswoman, as the death of FDR at Warm Springs freed Eleanor Roosevelt to become an international figure in her own right. Then she will “run something.”

If not politics, President Clinton could make a recess appointment to the Supreme Court. Her mother’s dream would be fulfilled. It has been done before. Justice Brennan was a recess appointment. That would suit Justice Rodham Clinton just fine.

If she has her way, it could be the United States itself that will have the opportunity for rebirth in the hands of Hillary. Indeed there are rumors in Washington, surely untrue, that she is not at all disturbed by the troubles Al Gore is experiencing, because if a Republican is elected in 2000 she can be the Democratic presidential heir apparent in 2004. That is if Al Gore is unsuccessful in 2000.
On to Plan B.

Olson concluded her book:

The Clinton years might seem like a long national nightmare of scandal, sleaze, and ruthless acquisition of power. Hillary herself is the link from the excesses of the Watergate staff, to the Whitewater fiasco, to the abuses of executive power, to the defense of her husband’s perjury and obstruction of justice. But now it is Hillary’s turn. The Clinton era is far from over and Hillary’s ambitions far from satisfied.

Hillary Clinton, as she reminded us on Saturday, has spent her life in politics. Don’t expect that to change. Whether or not she works hard for Barack Obama, whether or not she becomes Senate Majority Leader. Whether or not she tries again in four years. The campaign suspension really is only a temporary suspension as Clintonian plans are refigured.

The Clintons are always singing, Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

[crater7]

HILLARY CLINTON IS STILL BARACK OBAMA''S WORST NIGHTMARE. CKINTON''S APPROX, 18 MILLION SUPPORTERS WILL SEAL OBAMA DEFEAT, WITH THEIR VOTE IN NOVEMBER.

GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT "G D" AMERICA.

[sojornrtruth]

Dear Ms. Kathryn Jean Lopez,
What''s wrong with pursuing power?
What kind of perseonality disorders or mental illnesses would you assign to Senators McCain and Obama? Isn''t your own act of writing a form or power seeking? Are you jealous because you cannot pursue power at the sphere of Senator Clinton?

[tibu987]

Too bad!

[tibu987]

I am still amazed that 18 million misguided people voted for Billary, agreeing with her that her tenure as first lady somehow equated into some sort of qualifying presidential experience.
That along with all the scandals the Clintons have amassed from Arkansas to the White House makes me wonder even more.
Simply voting for Billary because she is a woman and that many women wanted to say that they voted for the first woman president makes me again wonder about the intelligence level of the average voter.

I will be the first in line to vote for a truly qualified woman to be president.
Billary was not that person.

[yongamerica]

Her continued push at inflating her experiences (We ran from the airplane under fire) and (I have 30 years of experience in office) was her undoing. Until she is honest with herself she can never be honest to her constituents.

[pghlady3]

if she backs Obama she will never win another election...Obama wants to be our President and control our government. Pay close
attention to the last comment!! Below are a few lines from Obama''s
books "
his words:


From Dreams of My Father: "I ceased to advertise my mother''s race at
the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was
ingratiating myself to whites."

From Dreams of My Father : "I found a solace in nursing a pervasive
sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race."

From Dreams of My Father: "There was something about him that made me
wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white."

From Dreams of My Father: ; "It remained necessary to prove which side
you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and
name names."

From Dreams of My Father: "I never emulate white men and brown men
whose fates didn''t speak to my own. It was into my father''s image, the
black man, son of Africa , that I''d packed all the attributes I sought
in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."

From Audacity of Hope: "I will stand with the Muslims should the
political winds shift in an ugly direction."

[twotraps]

It is refreshing to see someone at least admit that scandal seems to follow the Clintons. Too bad its at the very end of the article!

People have short memories...the Clintons disgraced the Presidency with lies and personal scandal. Hillary was the first First Lady to be named in a lawsuit and testify in front of Congress....where...shockingly...she set another record for women everywhere...250 times in response to a congressional hearings she said she may have miss-spoke, miss-remembered or miss-placed key information.

She''s a real beacon of hope.

She should get ready for Clinton v. Paul. I guess it starts in August, its the civil trial for campaign fraud during her senatorial campaign.

[fidgit2]

As a Hillary supporter and strong Democrat - Hillary, who has more experience than Obama, the unknown and untested - I will either vote for Hillary as a write-in in November or have to switch to a Republican, McCain. This saddens me tremendously but not as much as the thought of having Obama, the slick talking know-nothing, as President.

[tbweb]

HILLARY CLINTON IS STILL BARACK OBAMA''''S WORST NIGHTMARE. CKINTON''''S APPROX, 18 MILLION SUPPORTERS WILL SEAL OBAMA DEFEAT, WITH THEIR VOTE IN NOVEMBER.

GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT "G D" AMERICA.

Posted by crater7 at 04:54 PM : Jun 09, 2008,,,

HILLARY CLINTON MAY BE BARACK OBAMA''S WORST NIGHTMARE BUT THERE IS A POLITICAL PECKING ORDER, A POLITICAL FOOD CHAIN AND THE FACT REMAINS HILLARY CLINTON LOST AND AS A RESULT HER PECKING ORDER AND PLACE IN THAT FOOD CHAIN WAS DECIDED BY THE VOTERS. IF CLINTON OR ANYONE ELSE DISRUPTS THAT PECKING ORDER, DISRUPTS THAT FOOD CHAIN, IT WILL THEN BE THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE. HAD HILLARY CLINTON WON FAIR AND SQUARE, SHE WOULD EXPECT OTHERS TO KNOW THEIR PLACE AND SINCE CLINTON LOST SHE SHOULD KNOW HERS. FINALLY, BARACK OBAMA NEVER SAID "G D" AMERICA, REV. WRIGHT DID, STOP TRYING TO PIN AND SPIN "G D" AMERICA ON SEN. OBAMA AS IF HE SAID IT WHEN HE CLEARLY DID NOT! GET OVER IT!

[charocfl]

Subject: Hillary Clinton write in votes for 2008.
To: [e-mail]
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008,
Open message to Howard Dean & the DNC.
Ref: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/HillaryClinton-Write-In-vote2008/ - Hillary Clinton write in votes for 2008.
PPS: It is obvious that I am not the only Floridian who has these same sentiments & who plan not to sit still for another fiasco for the 2008 elations. See other 12 links posted on %u201CHillary Clinton write in votes for 2008%u201D petition link listed above.
Also see: One disgusted ex-Democrat in Florida who will be writing in Hillary Clinton for president in 2008 and just wanted to know how many others plan to do the same. Because one thing I have learned is that it is a liability to be a registered Democrat in the State of FL in particular & now it seams in other states such as MI "if one ACTUALLY WANTS THEIR CAST VOTE TO BE COUNTED AND NOT THROWN OUT WITH THE TRASH!!!!!" It now is apparent it will be an open season on trashing Democratic cast votes from both the Republican & the DNC for the 2008 election based on the track record of the DNC tossing out 50% of cast Democratic votes in both FL & MI.

Char O. ex-Democrat, Merritt Island, FL