Can Clinton Go Back to the Senate?

With the race for the Democratic nomination drawing to a close, Senator Barack Obama and a good chunk of the Democratic Party have begun to look to the future and the challenges ahead.

And before too long, Hillary Clinton will, too.

But for the former First Lady, her challenges will be much different, and her future far less certain. Over the next several weeks, Hillary Clinton will have to decide what to do with her career.

Ostensibly, she'd return to the Senate to continue doing the same thing she's done since she first took office back in 2000. After all, that's what John Kerry did, right?

With Clinton, the answer might not be so simple. By mid-summer, the Senator from New York may find herself in somewhat of an awkward position. She'll be returning to a position that most of her supporters, colleagues, and aides agree that she only took as a stepping-stone on her way to the White House, which she ultimately will have failed to accomplish.

She'll be returning to a chamber where more of her colleagues backed her chief rival than did her- and let's not mince words: the Clinton's haven't earned the reputation as the most forgiving of political teams.

Hillary Clinton's own ambition, which has taken on a stature of legendary proportion, seems to beg the question: will she be content to return to New York as one of two Senators in a body of 100?

A little more than a year ago, many in the media were prepared to crown Clinton the next Democratic nominee, if not the next President of the United States. It stands to reason that Clinton stopped for at least a moment or two to imagine the sheer possibility of her own presidency. Clinton, who spent eight years next to her husband while he held the office, was close enough to close her eyes and feel the heavy oak of the desk in the oval office.

But today, the story has changed dramatically. The general election is fast approaching, and for all intents and purposes, Clinton has no place in it.

In all likelihood, Obama will be of no help to her. Just three months ago, Democratic insiders were talking about making some kind of deal- perhaps Clinton in the VP slot or a powerful cabinet position- to appease her and get the party to coalesce around a single candidate. But now Obama, having weathered the storm of contentious primaries, is under no obligation whatsoever to involve Clinton in his administration. At this point, he doesn't need to bargain with her to secure the nomination for himself.

Beyond swallowing her pride and stepping confidently back into the Senate, there's little Clinton can do to advance her career from its current position.

Yes, she can run for a leadership post. But after running a campaign for the most powerful position in the world, something seems to suggest that she won't take the Senate's #2 spot. She'll want the Majority Leader title, and that means Harry Reid will have to be willing to part with it. Not impossible, but consider the fact that getting to that position was the crowning moment of Reid's 30-year legislative career, and it doesn't seem too likely.

What is not beyond the realm of possibility is Clinton's retirement, joining her husband in a life of philanthropy and social work outside of politics. Book deals, interviews, foundations, speaking tours...not the presidency, but not too shabby either.

In fact Clinton may choose not to finish her current term, which only began in 2006. With a number of promising successors waiting in the wings of the Empire State (Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, prominent Democrat and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) and a Democratic Governor in David Paterson to appoint them, leaving early might not seem like a bad option for Clinton.

For in every way that the next few weeks and months will be a time for Obama to map and re-strategize, so too will it be for Clinton. But whereas Obama's planning marks the beginning of a new era, with her preparations will come an end to an old one- to a political dynasty that never really began, and potentially, to an illustrious career that began in the executive mansion in Arkansas, and ended just shy of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Original here