The Big Dog Proved to be an Albatross

It’s over.

Sooner or later, Hillary Clinton will suspend her campaign and throw her support behind Barack Obama.

And when she does, it will be fairly obvious that a major part of her campaign’s failure was due to our nation’s 42nd president. Certainly, Bill Clinton’s efforts on her behalf left room for improvement though few would have predicted it would be so.

President Clinton is widely perceived as the Democratic Party’s most effective campaigner in recent history. But, his missteps and flubs in support of Hillary’s campaign suggest that he ain’t so hot at being second fiddle.

It may infuriate Hillary supporters that Bill proved to be such a liability but the irony is indisputable. Some who knew her in college and law school saw a remarkable woman with the potential to rise to the highest level of leadership. She spent decades holding her personal ambitions in check while assisting with his exceptional rise to power and she redefined the role of a political spouse. His ultimate retirement from the White House gave her a unique platform to launch her own political career.

Bill Clinton left office extraordinarily popular at home and abroad. But his years as president are not remembered nostalgically by everyone. You have to go back to FDR to find a Democrat who angered Republicans to the extent that Bill Clinton did. And, of course, the personal failings that, rightly or wrongly, lead to his impeachment were an embarrassment and disappointment to many Americans regardless of party.

Clinton loyalists will argue that it is unfair to hang his difficulties, real and perceived, on Hillary. But how could you not? One of George W. Bush’s first acts as president was to completely renovate the Oval Office. The implication was that the shenanigans of the previous occupant required a housecleaning of epic proportions. Unfortunately, his legacy left a metaphorical stain on his wife’s presidential aspirations that proved fatal.

But this should not be viewed as Hillary Clinton’s obituary. She has twice won election as New York’s junior senator and she has proved to be an effective and accomplished legislator. With the Democrats in charge of Congress and, hopefully, occupying the White House, Hillary Clinton should play a critical role to enact the policies she believes in.

Many of her supporters, craving a woman president, feel this may have been the last, best chance they are likely to see in their lifetimes. But there are many, many women in the leadership pipeline and the taboo of a president in a pantsuit has been broken. Nancy Pelosi and Condoleeza Rice are among the top officeholders to ascend to the presidency should something happen to Bush and Cheney and both presidential candidates are expected to consider women as running mates.

Women who established their political careers, at least partly, in the wake of their husband’s success often have asterisks attached to their legacies. Hillary Clinton has already demonstrated her exceptional talents in government and politics deserve to be judged on their own merits.

Let’s hope that she will throw her considerable skill and energy into electing Barack Obama as our nation’s next president. There is much work to be done.