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Hernando Today

What To Do With Hillary

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By JOHN HERBERT

Hernando Today

Published: June 14, 2008

One of the advantages of senior citizenship is that I've heard it all before -- for at least the last 65 years.
Although he's not yet officially the Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama delivered what amounted to an acceptance speech a few days ago.
You just have to admire the guy; he sure has mastered public oratory. And he's come essentially out of nowhere in just four years to capture the Democrats' biggest prize.
Now, for the really tough one: what does Obama do with Hillary? If he forgives all her rhetoric and names her his vice-presidential running mate, Obama will be committing a fatal mistake. He'll be confirming to us that he still has trouble making the right call, like with his murky relationship to the screaming Rev. Wright.
Hillary would be saddled with more baggage than Obama could possibly reckon with. For starters, he'd be getting an unwelcomed "twofer" -- both Senator Clinton and her past-president husband. So much for "change." All the recollections about Monica, the stained dress, Paula, Kate, plus just about any other unsavory story opposition pundits could easily and readily rehash.
Add to that, Hillary's old comments about "stay-at-home-moms" baking cookies, misspoken memories under that now-infamous Balkan sniper fire, Whitewater, embattled fundraiser Johnny Chung, cattle futures, Travelgate, Marc Rich, Vince Foster, Web Hubbell.
That's enough ammo to make even a ghostly Dick Cheney look more like an ex-Sunday School teacher than an allegedly oil-thirsty former Halliburton executive.
My advice is clear, although unsolicited and most likely to go unheeded: don't do it, Barack. If you can't say "no" to Hillary, how on earth are you ever going to handle the likes of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez?
On the surface, Obama should be the charismatic and obvious presidential frontrunner. He does an outstanding job reading a speech that's been seemingly well-written.
Democratic leaders like JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter and even Bill Clinton have eloquently made us Americans sound like bums who want nothing more than to be on the dole. While they have had little trouble identifying problem areas, they've offered no long-term solutions to get us out from under, or reasons why they would want to try.
Obama, for all his appeal, is headed for the same traps. According to his most-recent stump speech, he would "bring a new and better day to America." Where have I heard that one before? Probably all the way back to FDR. or Woodrow Wilson.
He goes on with more of the same old boilerplate. "This is our time," "the journey will be difficult," and "the road will be long." Obama could just as well have been paraphrasing JFK, LBJ or any other limousine liberal.
Obama talks about "reforming the criminal justice system," but doesn't say how. He vaguely mentions "affordable health insurance," "middle-class tax breaks" and "energy" but doesn't elaborate on these basic touchstones of the coming presidential campaign.
He wants to create jobs, but most other First World nations would kill for our relatively low five percent unemployment rate. He hopes to enhance our security against terrorism, but leaving troops in Iraq "is not an option." Admirably, Obama would "improve our schools," but the last I checked, education was within the state's bailiwick.
Obama repeats the old saw about meeting a student who works a night shift after a full day of classes and still can't meet his ill sister's medical bills. Every politician worth his (or her) salt has a similarly convenient and tear-jerking anecdote. Hey, I've got a sister for you -- she works at Dunkin' Donuts after school "just to help ends meet."
Obama hints that if you throw enough money at a problem, maybe it will go away. Or, if you analyze his energy plans carefully, he intends to tell our privately-held oil and automobile companies just what to do. Do we have here an outline for how Obama would run the White House?

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

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