Why Should He?

Now the hard part begins for Barack Obama.

Not the general election.

As the Obama braintrust basks in its historic moment, it’s had a two-month head start on the most prolific challenge ever faced by a newly-minted major party nominee: what to do about the vanquished.

There’s never been a runner-up like the junior senator from New York. Not LBJ. Not Reagan. Not Teddy.

And just as seemingly easy as it would be for an Obama/Clinton ticket to blossom in the afterglow of the greatest (by all measures) campaign in American political history, could Barack be sipping on these questions as he toasts victory:

“Is Hillary `Change’?” Should sixteen months of “Change We Can Believe In” end in an invitation to a candidate your campaign lumped in with the Washington establishment? Compromise is one thing, but would Obama just as quickly lose the one thing people still believe makes him different from McCain?

Does she help? 18 million votes, more than any other primary candidate, makes this seem obvious. So do her swing state victories. But are those only her victories, or any Democrat’s to win in a year when primary vote count tripled that of the GOP? Is she still the polarizing figure that would move Republicans who’d conceded ‘08 back to the polls?

Would it be 2 and a half presidents? Can a Change champ move through his political adolescence in a household with two domineering parents? And just who settles the ties? Would 18 million votes speak softly when things get uncomfortable?

Would she eclipse him? Name the VP who’s been as big, if not bigger, than Prez? (How’s the Cheney-Bush arrangement worked for you?)

Does he need her? For a guy who’s failed to rally middle-America in the last three months, Obama’s hardly a mortal lock and he’ll need to do something he’s yet to do in the campaign: improve, but is his liberal record enough for him to fail against John McCain and eight years of W?

Can she turn on him? Harder now than ever before, after vowing to see her party into the White House. Is every Clintonite prepared to sit this one out in the name of four more years of GOP leadership in the White House? Vote McCain? Really? And as for party unity; the great overhyped, meaningless talking point of the punditry, there is no Ross Perot or Ralph Nader option.

How Obama traverses the Hill ahead could be the measure of the candidate. Can he? Yes.