The Last Clinton Campaign

Is this the last time we'll ever see a Clinton campaign? Maybe. If Hillary Clinton cannot prevail next month in the large remaining states then there's no realistic chance of her becoming the nominee. And there's no guarantee that she will, in 2012, at age 65, run for another term for Senate. That means that we could be in the final moments of an extraordinary 35 year run of husband-wife campaigning. Speaking of which, my own spouse, as I always note, works for Clinton.

It would be ironic if it all ended on March 4 in Texas. One of the first campaigns they worked on together was George McGovern's presidential bid in Texas in 1972. Hillary herself worked to register voters along the Rio Grande.

Of course, writing the Clintons off is a famous professional hazard of journalists so it would be crazy to assume their life in electoral politics may be in its final weeks. And yet....When Obama pushed her aside tonight by starting her speech while she was barely into hers, there was something poignant about it. The Clinton voice has dominated politics for so long and tonight it was pushed aside, not only by Obama's speech but by his solid victory in Wisconsin, a state that could have been hers. Indeed, John McCain directed all of his fire tonight at Obama and ignored Clinton, even though a good Clinton jab would surely have fired up the conservatives he's been wooing so assiduously.

And, so, it was hard not to think ahead to a McCain-Obama contest. The first time we've had two sitting members of Congress face each other in modern times. The first time we've had two candidates from west of the Rockies (if you count Obama as a Hawaiian.) It would be a battle between a candidate from the 48th state against the 50th. McCain holds Barry Goldwater's seat. Obama holds the one from Adlai Stevenson III. It is the largest age gap ever between presidential candidates. Tonight the young and the old marched right past the Clintons who have been in the middle of our thoughts for so long.

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