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I heard Randi is looking very glum these days because of Hillary's defeat. I guess her political future is finished. Will Randi gain anything if Hillary is VP?
This is barking up the wrong tree. People who think Randi was in this for a cabinet position are way off base - those are at most a few years and out and she would have lost the power base she has.
Randi's future is and always has been to move up in the labor movement. Her political future on the national stage is just beginning. The next step is to unify the NEA and AFT which would give her a massive base. That is how she is much more useful to the Clintons in a 2012 campaign.
The Clintons have been open about the fact that they think Obama can't win - and they have played a not small role in that - and in essence declared McCain the winner. They will play the support Obama game to the end. My view is that for them and Randi, the 2012 campaign begins the day after the election. And Randi will be perfectly positioned as AFT president to use that platform for Hillary.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a one way street and Randi's career exists outside the life of the Clintons. Reaching the status of an Albert Shanker for her would not be a bad achievement. I hope she doesn't get ahold of the bomb. But then again, can you imagine Woody Allen using that line about Randi?
If Ms. Weingarten was indeed expecting a cabinet position, she's as short-sighted as I've long believed. Doubtless Hillary Clinton would've stabbed her in the back in a New York minute rather than hire and NYC union leader, Rod Paige's admiration notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteAnd Hillary appears to share Ms. Weingarten's lack of foresight. I think Barack Obama is the next American President. The other side has now gone as deep into the gutter as Ms. Weingarten's party, labeling Obama a Marxist.
I don't think that's gonna fly with the American public, especially after they see Obama and McCain side by side, which they certainly will.