The Note: Last Dance

June 4, 2008 -- Since she asked herself the question and everything -- what does Hillary want, after all? (And, more importantly for a Democratic Party that's in desperate need of some healing time, how badly does she want it?)

Sen. Barack Obama made history Tuesday -- a first term senator defying all of the odds in becoming the first black candidate to become a party standard-bearer. Yet even before he could claim the nomination in St. Paul, he was reminded that the party he's inheriting comes with some rather significant baggage -- including an angry slice of the base, and an opponent (plus spouse) who won't quite go away.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech Tuesday in New York may well have been one of the best of her campaign -- but the point is there is no more campaign, no real reason to stay in the race, not if the goal is the nomination she's been running for all this time.

Handling Clinton -- massaging the egos and desires of a bunch that's not wanting in either of those departments -- could well be more important than anything Obama does in his general election against Sen. John McCain.

"Until he deals with the Clinton question, it could be hard for Mr. Obama to move on to what he would like to achieve next," Adam Nagourney writes in The New York Times. "Mrs. Clinton's actions on Tuesday could not have raised her stock with Mr. Obama. Whether she intended to or not, her remarks pulled the spotlight away from him, reminding him that in many ways, she is a character that is hard to push off the stage."

Clinton may well covet the vice presidency (though, of course, she'd still prefer the top spot), and brings a long list to her inevitable endgame negotiations with Obama: campaign debt, policy matters, her role in the campaign, her husband's role, which staffers land where.

But how exactly did she help her case for all of that by telling her supporters she wants to hear from them on her Website -- fostering the very spirit of insurgency ("Denver! Denver!") the party wants and needs to put behind itself for the fall?

This is playing with political fire: "I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible," Clinton said.

(Are they disrespected, mute, and ignored if they don't win an election -- or get the consolation prize?)

The AP's Ron Fournier answers the question Clinton herself posed: "She will press her case for relevancy at the risk of widening the divide between Barack Obama's supporters and her older, whiter, working-class coalition," Fournier writes. "Clinton did not bow out Tuesday because she wants to retain her political leverage, advisers said privately, eying a spot on the ticket, a convention role and perhaps other benefits." x

Sen. Clinton has every right to want what she wants -- and she's still likely to move aside by week's end -- but shouldn't this week be all about what Obama wants?

"Not only did Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., not concede tonight, she didn't even congratulate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, for having secured the Democratic presidential nomination," ABC's Jake Tapper writes. "She said Obama inspired Americans to care about politics, and empowered people to get involved -- but nothing about his rather historic accomplishment."

Indeed, it was Obama congratulating Clinton late Tuesday, on her win in South Dakota; he got her voicemail, per ABC's Sunlen Miller.

They finally spoke at 12:18 am ET, and Obama reiterated his desire "to sit down when it makes sense to you." The Obama campaign characterizes Clinton's response as, "I'm sure that will happen" -- but no meeting is set (though their paths will practically cross Wednesday when they make morning speeches at the AIPAC meeting in Washington).

As for Tuesday: "It was an extraordinary performance by a woman who had been counted out of the race even when she still had a legitimate chance. Now she had been mathematically eliminated -- and she spoke as if she had won," The Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes. "For a candidate who had just lost the nomination, she seemed very much in charge. That must be what Hillary wants."

"In what should have been Obama's big, historic night -- he did, after all, win the nomination -- Clinton rained on his reign," Michael Goodwin writes in the New York Daily News.  If Clinton's actions are any gauge, she appears to want the vice presidency -- or at least to be able to want it when she decides what she wants. Why else drop that oh-so-subtle hint in the conference call with New York lawmakers? (Did she not think this would become very public?)

"I am open to it," she told members of her home state's congressional delegation, according to the Associated Press.

The Wall Street Journal's Jackie Calmes: "Sen. Clinton told them she wouldn't definitively end her 17-month campaign despite Sen. Obama's delegate lead. This will give her more leverage in talks with the Illinois senator."

"One member of Congress on the calltold ABC News it was 'the first time we've gotten the green light' on the question of the so-called Democratic 'dream ticket.' "

Lanny Davis, a card-carrying member of the Clinton inner circle, goes a step further, circulating a petition that calls on Obama to choose Clinton, per ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We write to urge you to select Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to be your choice for vice president because we believe that she would be, by far, the most qualified and strongest candidate to be your running mate," *the petition reads.*

And: "Clinton's national finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, said he was also pushing an Obama-Clinton ticket, claiming that together they would be able to raise $200 million to $250 million for the general election," per the AP's Jim Kuhnhenn and Beth Fouhy. Leon Panetta, President Clinton's former chief of staff, raises the stakes: "It may be his first test as to whether or not he's prepared to be president of the United States,"Panetta tells The New York Sun's Josh Gerstein. "If you want to be president, you're going to have to be flexible in terms of what the most effective way is to get your message across to the American people."

"What she's trying to do is keep all of her options open," ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "Barack Obama is facing his next big presidential test. . . . Does he show toughness and maturity by getting over whatever personal pique he has and putting her on the ticket? Or does he show toughness and maturity by matching hardball with hardball and denying her the spot?"

What if the push is all a big reason to say no? "Clinton's unwillingness to recognize Obama as the victor only increased the need for Obama to act like a president and not like a doormat. And denying her a vice presidential slot may be a way of doing that," Politico's Roger Simon writes.