Hill and Bill...Get Over Yourselves!

Can you imagine a Mitt Romney or a Mike Huckabee meeting in backyards and small gatherings, under the guise of campaigning for John McCain, telling their supporters that they need a strategy to nominate her at the Republican convention? Can you even imagine a Bill Richardson or John Edwards doing the same thing? There is a reason that this isn't done...there are two candidates that have already secured the required threshold to become their partys' presumptive nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton met with a small gathering of supporters in a backyard in California, and in the process of making the rounds drumming up support for Obama, made it clear that she and her supporters need to concoct a plausible and workable strategy to get her name placed in nomination at the Democratic convention.

Bill Clinton, who has made a rather public display of distancing himself from the Obama campaign, was interviewed in Africa yesterday and instead of speaking glowingly at the thought of an Obama presidency, gave him a tepid if not ambivalent nod as he said that no one is really prepared to become the president. Both he and his wife have made natioal news with their arguably annti-Obama comments.

Well, Bill and Hillary, it is time to stand up, walk over to the mirror and say, "Okay, Bill/Hillary, yes, it stings that I/we didn't get the nomination. It sucks, actually! But I have a job to do. And...oh, yeah. I can really score some major points with everyone, especially a lot of my detractors, by coming out big for Obama." Bill should say, "Dammit, I was the first black president. I'll be damned if -- no! Obama is a good man, and I can't let my stubbornness stand in the way of him winning!" Hillary should say, "I wanted to be president! I wanted to be pre -- no! I won't allow John McCain to be president if I have anything to say about it!"

At the same time, Barack must gently nudge the Clilntons the come into the fold. This "the Clintons must have their respect and their just due" is absolute crap! I don't subscribe to anything that the Bushes do or stand for, but George Bush, Sr. is the previous president, not W's chief advisor. He is honored, along with Bill Clinton I might add, when honor is appropriate. But the Clintons haven't achieved royalty status just yet, and the Obama campaign must reach out to them just as they do all any other Democratic colleague, with respect, with a shared admiration and understanding, but not with a "you set the agenda" attitude.

There was no bigger admirer of Bill Clinton than I was. In his hayday, I was his biggest fan and vocal supporter. His behavior of late and during the primary campaign was deplorable. Both he and Hillary ran a campaign of entitlement and of destruction, but both off them can redeem themselves drastically in the eyes of the American people, Democrats and Republicans alike, by assuming the role of team players who vigorously support their candidate without demanding that their own needs are met first or that they will run off and brood.

Bill and Hillary, get with the program!!