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What does Hillary want... a sincere reconciliation or belated revenge? WASHINGTON
23/08/08



Hillary Clinton does not see herself as a loser. On the contrary, the closer she gets to the Democratic Party convention that opens on Monday in Denver, Colorado, the more self-confident she appears.
A couple of weeks ago, the face of the former first lady still showed the marks of disappointment and the strains of the primary campaign.

However, she is shining once again. Even her laughter sounds clear and triumphant. It is the laugh of a woman who is aware of her own power: if she gives him the thumbs-down, Barack Obama might never reach the White House on November 4.

She and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, will play key roles in the Democratic Party convention in Denver, perhaps to answer what her legion of fervent supporters are wondering: Does Hillary Clinton want sincere reconciliation or belated revenge?

On the outside, the 60year-old US senator leaves no doubt of her loyalty to Obama as the nominee of their centreleft party. “We may have started on different paths, but today our paths have merged,” Hillary has said. She sounds like a loyal party soldier, and she has even made campaign appearances for Obama. Hillary vows to be doing her utmost to help her former rival reach the White House.

However, columnists warn that the Clintons keep casting doubts about Obama. “Yes, she can” was a recent headline in The New York Times, a play on Obama’s campaign slogan, which was intended to read as “yes, she can mess things up for Obama.” “Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!” op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote.

Dowd described the Clintons’ feelings with a German word sometimes applied in English: “Schadenfreude,” or joy at others’ sorrow.

In fact, Hillary Clinton has taken a deep fall. She was once a strong favourite to winning the Democratic nomination and was way ahead in intraparty opinion polls. The couple had already lived in the White House for eight years, and a return seemed like destiny — a new dynasty in US politics. But then the dream was destroyed, lost to a black candidate who was only elected to the US Senate in 2004.

However, Hillary knows her own power. She keeps bringing up the ‘18 million men and women’ who voted for her in the primaries and made her the first woman in US history with a real chance to reach the presidency.

According to some opinion polls, as many as one in five of Hillary’s supporters in the primaries are threatening to withhold their vote for the Democratic nominee in November. Some have even said they would rather vote for centreright Republican John McCain over Obama.

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Comment!

If Hillary's democrats vote this time for McCain, which is very likely, Hillary can run again for president in 4 years?