Commentary by Margaret Carlson
June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Most of us know what a brush-off looks like. You can be sure Barack Obama recognized the snub conveyed in this 27-word statement: ``President Clinton is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States.'' Signed Matt McKenna, spokesman.
Message: I Don't Care. P.S. You Are Dead To Me. In the pantheon of kiss-off adverbs, ``obviously'' ranks up there with ``frankly.'' The only way to drive ``get lost'' home harder would have been to add, ``If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to call.''
Forget Obama's difficulty bringing Hillary Clinton into the fold. At least those two held private peace talks at Senator Dianne Feinstein's gated Washington house earlier this month. Tomorrow, they will have a public reconciliation in a place called Unity, a New Hampshire village so small it doesn't have a traffic light and gives neither of them a home-court advantage. In the Democratic primary in January, Obama and Clinton each won 107 votes there.
Surprise! A previous commitment prevents Bill from joining his wife. You have to wonder if a date was chosen when Bill would have a plausible reason not to attend. He will be in London's Hyde Park for a concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's birthday.
Each Has Beefs
So how long will it be before Bill and Obama actually talk? A long time, if Obama doesn't personally pay homage. The problem is that each has beefs with the other. Obama thinks Clinton unfairly compared him to Jesse Jackson. Clinton thinks Obama compared him unfavorably to Ronald Reagan when he said Reagan ``changed the trajectory of America... in a way that Bill Clinton did not.'' Clinton says he thinks the Obama folks race-baited him. Obama complained he was being double-teamed by Hillary, with Bill playing the part of vice presidential attack dog.
Bill is now furious that among Obama's first hires was Patti Solis Doyle, whom a desperate Hillary fired in a campaign shake- up. By making Doyle chief of staff to his yet-unnamed vice presidential choice, Obama signaled in a not-so-gentle way that his choice would not be Hillary. Why poke a stick in the Clintons' eyes? It's the most inexplicable thing a candidate's done all year, and I'm including Dennis Kucinich claiming to have seen a UFO.
Who did what to whom is now beside the point. Obama won, and it's the candidate's job to reach out to the loser(s), especially when one of the losers happens to be a former president, albeit one recently guilty of some very unpresidential behavior.
What Bill Wants?
Even if it comes to begging, Obama must do it. Even with that, it will be hard. Figuring out What Bill Wants could be trickier than deducing What Hillary Wants. Friends say she's given up on being offered No. 2. She'd like her debt paid off.
Not so much Bill. He's never cared about money. It was Hillary who did the cattle futures, and donated Bill's used underwear to charity for a tax deduction. Bill sees whatever they owe as just a few more speeches to wealthy businessmen in Dubai.
Obama has significant strengths in the negotiations. Now that there isn't going to be a Clinton Restoration, Bill's path to worldwide glory runs through Obama. He'd like to remain the first virtual black president, a title conferred by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. That might happen.
When asked if Bill was a ``brother'' at a debate, Obama said yes, the only qualification being his dance moves. You can picture Clinton basking in the attention, giving a fist pump on stage at the convention followed by a Hollywood hug.
Bill's Own Plane
Obama could promise Clinton that ``roving ambassadorship'' that Hillary talked about for Bill had she won. It would be like a presidency-without-domestic-portfolio. And since the job would come with a plane, it would even allow Clinton to get rid of the likes of superbachelor Ron Burkle if he wants. Hillary surely would.
You can see what's holding Obama back. Why pay off the millions of dollars Hillary owes failed strategist Mark Penn and others who forced Obama to campaign three months after it was impossible for Clinton to win?
And does he really need the Clintons to defeat John McCain, a septuagenarian running to succeed a president with abysmal approval ratings in the midst of an economy in the tank, a war that a huge majority of the public is against, and 80 percent of voters saying the country's on the wrong track?
But why bet against a pair of Comeback Kids? It was only in 2000 when Hillary, fresh from her husband's impeachment, abdicated the White House for a state she had mainly visited as a tourist to run for the Senate.
Hillary's Career Arc
Seven years later, New York Senator Clinton was favored to win the presidency. That's a career arc almost as good as Obama's.
Far from making himself look weak, Obama would look strong taking the high road of reconciliation. If it turns out that all the Clintons really think about is themselves -- not about the party, the country or Obama -- and he keeps behaving the way he has, they will do the minimum. At the very least, publicly asking for their help will make it harder for the former first couple to go AWOL on him.
As good as Obama's lead in the polls looks now, politics is a dicey game. Let's fast-forward to 2011. Senate Majority Leader Hillary Clinton, the presumed 2012 presidential nominee, is proposing a congressional proclamation to honor the first black presidential candidate. Obama will travel from Illinois where he is practicing law to hear it. No one, least of all Obama, should ever forget that neither Elvis nor Mrs. Elvis is ever leaving the building.
(Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)
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