December 10, 2007

     We've never had a co-presidency.  Walter Cronkite talked about the possibility of a Reagan-Ford ticket in 1980 and said it might be one but, of course, that never happened.  Now if Senator Clinton wins the White House we'd have a prez and an ex-prez in residence.  You have to wonder who'd be trying to give orders to whom.

 

     I'd bet serious money that Hillary never uttered the word "obey" when she married Bill.  But what, as President, would she do with him?   Barack Obama says he'd give Bill Clinton a job because he's capable.  Hillary has said her husband might be some sort of roving ambassador.

 

     But he's a better instinctive politician than she;  "I feel your pain" is not in her repertoire.  And he's had more experience.  What does she do when he says, "Listen, hon, I know these Russians better than you, I've negotiated with them before.  Take my advice and do such and such."?

 

     I don't know what she does.  She is one tough women, for sure.  But she has spent years with a husband who was often and notoriously unfaithful to her.  Love?  Ambition?  If it was all ambition--he can get me the one job I really want--she'll probably tell him to shut up and go to his room.  If it's been love or a mixture of the two, she probably listens -  but how hard?  Her father was an old-fashioned, pro-business conservative who paid cash for his house and thought government should stay out of areas like education.  As a grownup, Hillary Clinton went the other way.  Her husband, the president, was pretty much a middle-of-the-roader with an eye on the polls.  Will she follow his path?  Will she be more aggressive in foreign affairs or less?  Good questions all.  

 

     There's probably nothing really wrong with a co-presidency, if that's what her victory would give us.  But we're used to having one person in charge, the one the voters elected.  That, in 2008, would not be Bill, of course.  And it might be useful if she were pressed to spell out in some detail just what her husband's role would be, how important his advice would be.

 

     One thing's certain:  unless Bill starts wearing skirts, we'll know who wears the pants in the family.  Both of them.