After endorsing the Clinton candidacy for the Democratic nomination, the New York Times seems to be getting cold feet. In an editorial today, entitled “The Low Road to Victory,” they blasted her saying:
“The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.
Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.”
I think their appeal will fall on deaf ears. This is the way Clinton wants to run her campaign and she has every right to do so. Ultimately, David Gergen, a very prescient political analyst on CNN, may be right. He said it may be her calculation that by running until the end in a negative campaign, the party will be so divided that the VP slot MUST be filled by the losing candidate. The logic makes sense. So what if the party’s divided now. Obama needs Hillary and Hillary needs Obama. Hillary can at least be assured of a VP slot now.
If this is Clinton’s calculus, it is in her interest to stay in the campaign as long as possible. She cannot afford to have healing begin without her because this would obviate the need for her as a VP if Obama wins the nomination. She must carry on, attcking Obama for as long as possible if she wants to secure the VP slot.
Hey, it may not be pretty but it works.
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