In his column today, Dick Morris reveals that Hillary Clinton flirted with the idea of running for governor of Arkansas in 1990…
Bill, determined to seek the presidency in ’92, was weighing whether to run for another term as governor or to step down and seek the presidency as a private citizen. Key to his decision was whether Hillary could take his place, both to keep the seat warm for him should he lose the presidential race and to stop any unwanted revelations from surfacing while he was off campaigning.
But the polls I took at the Clintons’ behest found that voters saw Hillary merely as an extension of Bill, not as an independent political figure. Arkansans saw her possible candidacy for governor as an attempt to be a placeholder for her husband.
This says a lot of things about both Bill and Hillary Clinton. No matter how much Hillary tries to separate herself from Bill, they are a team. They can’t help thinking about taking the next climb up the political ladder without having something to fall back one. That’s why Hillary chose to run for the U.S. Senate in New York: a reliably blue state with a lot of electoral votes. The Clinton’s don’t care about the people they ask to elect them… they only care about power, be it gaining it or retaining it.