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Washington: While Senator Hillary Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, former President Bill Clinton, for one, has begun privately musing about a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama's running mate.
The prospect of an Obama-Clinton ticket has been fodder for political gossip for months, with some Democratic leaders pushing the idea as a way to unify the party. The Obama and Clinton campaigns have consistently shrugged off the idea, however, and Clinton has been adamant that she is only interested in the presidency.
Yet anyone who knows the Clintons is well aware that, at times, they come to politics with different motivations. Both of them want to return to the White House; Hillary Clinton, representing New York, also enjoys being a senator, while Bill Clinton, according to associates, sees the vice-presidency as perhaps her best path to becoming president someday if she loses the nominating fight. And Bill Clinton has his own ideas about his wife's best interests - even if she sometimes does not share them.
A spokesman for Clinton's campaign said that Bill Clinton had not had private conversations in which he was pushing her for the vice presidency or arguing that she deserved it, and that he believes that the choice of a running mate is a personal one for the nominee.
Friends of the former president say his musings have been more casual: He believes that an Obama-Clinton ticket could help unify the party, and he thinks that she has earned a meeting with Obama to discuss the possibility.
According to these friends, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to be identified revealing private talks, Bill Clinton believes that his wife's victories in major primary battles, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the 16 million votes cast for her candidacy make her the proper choice for Obama.
"If she's not going to be the nominee, then he wants her in the second spot," said one friend of the Clintons. "In the long run, it's the best way for her to run again in 2016."
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| This article on the national political campaigns in the United States is from The New York Times. It was specially selected and prepared by the editors of The New York Times News Service. |
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