Clinton's Potential Consolation - The New York Times 4/16/08 - JB

On nytimes.com today, Sen. Hillary Clinton, should she lose out of the Democratic run at president, reportedly has been asked about running for governor of New York by some New York Democrats.

Should Clinton run for governor instead of president, many things are still expected to be the same, from opposition Republicans to political partisanship.

Clinton and her aides have denied such a “consolation prize” should she not win the Democratic nomination ever since the idea was first published in Newsweek and debated widely online and on talk shows.

David A. Paterson, the replacement governor for Elliot Spitzer, has her full support, Clinton said.

Still, many prominent New York Democrats who strongly support Clinton’s run at the presidency are pushing for her to run for governor should she not in the event she does not win.

“Especially since I’m supporting her for president, I would say she certainly could do a bang-up job as governor of the state,” Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol said.

The prodding and suggesting though has not intrigued Clinton at all though, Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Clinton said on April 15.

“This whole line of inquiry is ridiculous,” Wolfson said. There are no circumstances under which Senator Clinton will run for governor.”

A factor in the debate is that Gov. Patterson is black, something that some say could even further her trouble in garnering the black vote against Sen. Barack Obama.

“It would destroy her potential base vote among blacks and boost up black turnout for Obama,” Hank Sheinkopf, a New York political consultant who worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign, said.

While all indications that a Clinton run at governor is just talk, many analysts say that the same thing was said about a second Clinton running at the presidency.