Politics Is Theater

Tonight there will be a dance that will be broadcast nationally that will truly be reality TV.  Though there will be no onstage judges or a number to call in and vote the person off the air, there will be judgments and consequences for the performance.  Tonight Hillary Clinton will address the nation from her home state of New York and start the dance that will either help her to become a VP nominee, a powerhouse in the Senate, a future Democratic presidential nominee, or none of the above.  Needless to say the stake are high.  The dance of politics tonight has to be smooth and perfect.  No mistakes will be allowed.

Hillary Clinton by all accounts will either ‘suspend’, or in some other way end her race for the Democratic presidential nomination tonight.  She will state that Barack Obama will indeed have the needed delegates to challenge John McCain in the fall election.

How she says it, the conviction that her words strike, the facial composure she projects, the warmth she exudes all will tell much about the future of Hillary Clinton.   If she wants a place on the ticket, (and I am not certain of that in my mind, as I think she views the best route to the White House as another race on her own in the future) or a major role as a player in Democratic politics without the baggage of angry Obama voters hanging over her head, she needs to pull off one barn-burner of a speech.  It must ooze sincerity and be the performance of her life.

I think she can do it.

She is a not only bright but capable, and highly political.  She can calculate the risk of a bad performance tonight as we can.

The dance is only a few hours away.

The judges will be in living rooms around the nation watching.

History will provide the final judgment.

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