Pauline Collins has a nice, rambly piece in the New York Times today about the ego-driven shadows behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
For Hillary, it's Bill. He loves being out there.
In a way, though, it’s his idea of heaven. The man is perfectly happy to go anywhere as long as he gets to talk. Harvard, McSwain Extension Center, somebody’s living room, somebody’s lawn, the checkout line at Rite Aid. Just sit him next to a human being with ears and he’s good to go.
For Obama, it's the Reverend Wright.
Men with egos are, of course, the central topic this week, what with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. dominating the American conversation to an extent that even he could have not imagined in his wildest dreams.
You don't get to be a guy like Reverend Wright -- inhabiting his pulpit for several decades -- without developing a powerful, demanding ego. But it's not just ego that drives these men, it's the retirement funds.
Bill Clinton took his personality, his foundation, his Harlem office, and turned post-presidency into a cash-cow. Without a wife in the White House, the cow (like any cow) would gradually age and become less productive. With a wife in the White House, there's an entire herd of heifers waiting in the wings and guaranteed to produce for at least another decade or so. $102M? Small change, compared with the possibilities.
Jeremiah Wright is surely not immune to the prospect of having a series of pulpits plus speaking fees for the foreseeable future. Wright, however, has a much less developed political sense than Bill Clinton. He doesn't seem to have weighed in the probability that if he plays the spoiler, his front man may not make it to the White House . The way he's playing it right now, his retirement fund deposits could well end in Denver, in September.
In the meantime, however, both Wright and Clinton see themselves as the key players in the drama playing out on the nation's TV screens. But more notably Bill Clinton. Pauline Collins writes:
When Hillary was on the ropes in New Hampshire, Bill rather famously told a crowd that “I can’t make her younger, taller, male ...” And while the “younger” part was a little hurtful, the message really seemed to be that he sees himself as the central player in this drama.
We’re down to a race between the candidate who claims he will make the political process better but has yet to demonstrate exactly how that works, and the woman who claims she’s the only one who’s powerful enough to take on the Republican forces of darkness. Don Quixote vs. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both accompanied by their lieutenants — the men who think it’s all about them.