the narrow but decisive loser of the Democratic nomination for president, is refusing to quit refusing to quit.
Her defiant victory speech Tuesday night and her campaign’s silence this morning have Clinton’s aides and supporters asking the same question she asked herself last night: “What does Hillary want?”
“She’s holding out for something – but I’m not sure what it is,” a usually well-informed campaign advisor who spoke to Clinton yesterday told Politico.
Other Clinton supporters, meanwhile, pressed her case for the Vice Presidency in a variety of forums, with congressional supporters led by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida considering a letter to Obama pressing that case, Wasserman-Schultz’s chief of staff said.
But they were slowed by the lack of a clear signal from the candidate herself.
Clinton is the strongest runner-up in the history of Democratic politics, a status that gives her an unusual amount of leverage on her rival, Barack Obama. But she’s also hemmed in by the reality that to be seen as a half-hearted campaigner for Obama, or worse, as causing his defeat, would be political suicide.
She especially needs help restoring support from an African-American community that had been her base – assistance that can only come from Obama’s fulsome embrace. She could use Obama’s help raising money to retire her debts, something she signaled with an aggressive online appeal for cash last night. Her supporters assume she has earned the prime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention that Obama can bestow.
Those around her say that beyond the mundane negotiating points – a half hour in Denver, help raising money – there is a more personal, less tangible demand that she be accorded the respect she feels she earned in an historic bid that brought her closer to the nomination than any other second-place Democratic finisher.
Despite sending a strong signal Tuesday afternoon that she’d be open to a vice presidential nomination, Clinton aides said yesterday that while she may want to be Vice President, she understands that she can’t force Obama’s hand.
“It’s not something you can demand,” said an aide.
Nevertheless, Clinton appeared Tuesday to free her supporters to press her case, and Wasserman-Schultz wasn’t the only one considering an appeal. Aides made no effort to intervene in former Clinton aide Lanny Davis’s impromptu press conference Tuesday night, at which he announced he’d be circulating a petition to put Clinton on the ballot. Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson told the Washington Post that Clinton herself cleared his own appeal to House Majority Whip James Clyburn for a joint ticket.
“There’ll be an intricate tango between the two campaigns as they figure out a way to choreograph this so that she has her held high,” said Jonathan Prince, a former Clinton aide who advised former Senator John Edwards this cycle.
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