Hillary Clinton's Options

I have heard a great deal of discussion recently about Hillary Clinton’s political future. Some of the discussion has revolved around the question of should she pledge to serve out her full term if re-elected to the Senate in 2006?

I remember when John Edwards ran for President in 2004. He left his Senate seat virtually unoccupied for a long time while he went around the country campaigning. That did not sit well with a lot of people back home, even some of his staunch supporters. Some people resented that he wasn’t doing the job he was elected to do. Some people felt that, since he wasn’t running for re-election, he should have stepped down, let the Democratic Governor appoint a replacement (maybe Erskine Bowles) and just spend all his time campaigning.

Maybe New York, like Massachusetts, is different from North Carolina. Massachusetts didn’t seem to resent John Kerry’s taking time away from his job to run for President in 2004, but Kerry had a long, distinguished career to look back on and to look forward to if he lost. I think Hillary, like Edwards, might just be seen as an opportunist in her home state if she tries to juggle her Senate duties with a run for the White House.

These days campaigning for President can be a full-time job. I wouldn’t be greatly surprised to see Hillary forego a second term in the Senate and instead spend two years campaigning for President. Of course she would run the risk of creating Hillary-fatigue: tiring herself with such a long campaign, and making the country tired of her in the process. But it would also give her more time to connect with voters in states like Florida. (Let’s face it, NY is already in Hillary’s column for 2008, regardless.) And I think she would gain a lot of respect if she was honest with the people of NY and the nation, admitted that she wants to be President, and spent all her energy pursuing that goal.