Long Island, our Senator has tough choice to make

James Klurfeld

May 8, 2008

The Hillary Clinton we've seen over the past few weeks of the campaign is the Hillary Clinton many of us have come to know in New York over the past eight years: Bright, tenacious, charming to a degree unexpected, indefatigable in her determination to demonstrate that a Midwesterner by way of Arkansas and Washington could represent New York with all its different regions and diversity.

It will be the lasting irony of her run for president that she only found her campaign voice when she had become the decided underdog in the race for the Democratic nomination. The qualities that New Yorkers, upstate and downstate, city and suburban, came to appreciate about her is similar to the response she has been receiving from voters in places such as Ohio and Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Even if you didn't like her from the White House days, you had to have a certain admiration for her toughness and determination. The issue wasn't whether she would make a good next door neighbor - and, by the way, I think she would - it was whether she was tough enough to lead the country. She answered that in the affirmative.

But to stay on the comeback trail, Clinton needed a big win in Indiana and to be competitive in North Carolina Tuesday night. That wasn't the case. She narrowly won Indiana and lost decisively in North Carolina. Not good enough.

The reality is that she ran into a natural political force in Barack Obama. He is a good enough politician to take advantage of the considerable anti-Hillary vote that was always out there and to bring in his own voters, young people, independents and blacks, in a way that couldn't have been anticipated. Does he have flaws? Obviously. He demonstrated that over the past few weeks and admitted it Tuesday night. But his message of inclusion resonates among many Democratic voters.

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What impressed me about Sen. Clinton in New York over the past eight years was her willingness to listen and try to bring different types of people - some who did not support her - together. Just look at the manner in which she worked with Long Island leaders to represent suburban interests on such issues as housing, brownfield recovery and the environment. Her staff work was superb, but she herself was always aware and available.

The question now is which Hillary Clinton we will see in the end game of this historic fight. There's the coldly calculating, even ruthless side of her that seems to say anything or do anything to win a political battle. The claim that Michigan and Florida delegates should be fully counted, after she earlier had agreed to abide by party rules, is one example. Not that I see those qualities as inappropriate for a leader, incidentally. To paraphrase the Prussian Gen. Carl von Clausewitz: Politics is war by other means.

But what has struck me about Clinton over the past eight years is that there is a very practical side to her. She quickly became a force in the Senate not only because of her fame - which could have worked against her in that club - but because she was willing, first, to work quietly behind the scenes and then to join forces with legislators from the other side of the political spectrum to get things accomplished.

It's that practical side that will be tested in the coming weeks. Clinton can certainly see the primary season to its official close on June 3 while she continues to try to woo superdelegates. But the issue is whether she really wants to carry the fight to the rules committee of the party in July or even go into the Denver convention in late August for a bitter battle that will hurt the party's chances in November.

Will that make sense for her, or for us here in New York? After all, assuming she loses, she'll still be our senator when this is all over. And it'll be our good fortune to have her.