Meet the Clintons

Here's a good op-ed piece from today's New York Times that argues against the sort of "plural presidency" that is likely to occur if Hillary Clinton wins the election:

We have seen in this campaign how former President Clinton rushes to the defense of presidential candidate Clinton. Will that pattern of protection be continued into the new presidency, with not only his defending her but also her defending whatever he might do in his energetic way while she’s in office? It seems likely. And at a time when we should be trying to return to the single-executive system the Constitution prescribes, it does not seem to be a good idea to put another co-president in the White House.

Garry Wills makes a pretty reasonable point here. He cites that one of the major problems of the Bush administration was that many members of the executive essentialy ran their own campaign, pointing specifically to Vice Presiden Dick Cheney heading his own intelligence and military operations. And we have already former President Clinton's appearance in the political scene, politicizing on the behalf of Hillary while simultaenously denouncing the Obama campaign (see earlier blog post here). It has pretty much become common knowledge that many Democrats favor Hillary Clinton because her presidency essentialy entails a package deal. If this is the kind of activity we can expect, then to say the least it would be quite an annoying four years.

The question remains, however, whether we should really expect this. Yes, a victory for Mrs. Clinton will mean that Bill will be poking his head around and influencing the political scene much more than he has been in recent years (recall how Mr. Clinton was actually seeking the nomination for UN Secretary General to follow Kofi Annan). But, I do not think that he will by any means running the sort of secret Cheney-like intelligence operations that Willis had in mind, nor do I think he would be undermining or polarizing the presidency. True, Mr. Clinton's resurgence has left me less-than-enthusiastic, which is not to say that I feel any better about Mrs. Clinton in the White House--but my point is that I do not think we have to worry about a "plural presidency" just yet.