http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/campaign_creates_a_new_clinton.htmlPost-Crucible Clinton
By E. J. Dionne
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton still has a lot to win this year, but not the presidency and not the vice presidency.
With Barack Obama having effectively secured the Democratic presidential nomination, it is hard for the Clinton camp to focus on her successes in this contest. But Clinton now possesses strengths she did not enjoy when the campaign began.
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For both Clintons, one of the most painful aspects of this campaign has been their alienation from so many black voters. Any moves that risk further divisions in the Democratic Party -- Hillary Clinton's comment last week about Obama's weakness among voters who are "hard-working" and "white" didn't help -- will aggravate a problem she wants to go away.
So would an orchestrated campaign by Clinton supporters to push Obama hard to make her the vice presidential nominee. An aggressive Clinton for vice president campaign would simply reopen fights that are just ending and offer Obama two bad choices: either to look weak by capitulating to pressure from the defeated wing of the party, or to look spiteful by refusing to take Clinton on.
On the other hand, choosing a Clinton supporter as a running mate -- the obvious possibilities are Govs. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Ted Strickland of Ohio or Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana -- could serve Obama's interest while assuaging a certain sourness that lingers in the Clinton camp.
But the best antidote to this melancholy is for her supporters to see that the Hillary Clinton who has emerged from these primaries is a stronger and more independent figure than the candidate who once hoped she could parlay the past into the White House. Her future depends on discovering a new role, even if it is not the one she had originally hoped to play.