And She's Off

The wait is finally over. During a meeting with the United Federation of Teachers in Manhattan last Tuesday, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced--to the shock of absolutely nobody--that she intends to run for the U.S. Senate. It's "time to get moving and get started," she said.

But the lingering question is, what took her so long?

For Clinton, it was time to get moving and get started a long time ago. Unlike expected GOP opponent Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has an obligation to his elected position as New York City mayor, Clinton has been inexcusably camouflaging her possible Senate bid with her unofficial role as the First Lady. Especially since her candidacy was never really in doubt--Westchester Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the only other potential Democratic contender, dropped out months ago--the delay represents a lost chance for Clinton to appeal to voters still uneasy about the "carpetbagger" label. It doesn't help that the First Lady has not spent nearly enough time in New York--her Manhattan visit last Tuesday was her first visit to the state in the last two weeks. This has prompted concern among some state Democrats, including state Party Chairperson Judith Hope and state Comptroller H. Carl McCall.

But more troubling is that the First Lady has been reluctant to take stances on important, albeit divisive, issues pertinent to her candidacy. Take, for example, Clinton's recent trip to the Middle East, where she attracted negative attention for failing to respond directly to the allegations of Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, that Israel had used poison gas against the Palestinians. Although Clinton later dismissed Suha Arafat's claims as "baseless," she justified her earlier inaction by appealing to her diplomatic role as the First Lady.

But as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Clinton cannot ignore the issue of Israel-Palestinian relations. Nor can she continue to avoid questions on Palestinian statehood. She cannot continue to flip-flop, like she did on the issue of clemency for 16 Puerto Rican separatists in September. She will have to put forth her own education plans, instead of merely criticizing Republican tax cuts. And instead of straddling the fence as she did last October, she will have to decide for certain whether she roots for the Mets or the Yankees.

Clinton's delayed announcement gives her that much less time to dispel the "carpetbagger" accusation and present herself to New York voters as a serious and viable Senate candidate. We hope that now that she's in official campaign mode, she'll let us know more concretely where she stands on the issues.