Exiling Dick Morris

If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, the political pundit pledges to leave the United States.

Published December 19, 2006 11:56PM (EST)

Is Dick Morris calling Hillary Clinton out?

In an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," the political strategist turned pundit vowed he'd flee the country if Sen. Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, with Barack Obama as her running mate, according to NewsMax.com. If anything, that pledge, surely, will only make Clinton more determined to run.

Morris managed Bill Clinton's successful 1996 reelection campaign until he was embroiled in a toe-sucking sex scandal with a prostitute. Since then, he has broken ties with the Clintons, and created a cottage industry out of critiquing them in his column in the New York Post and on Fox News. His Hillary hating has even included writing a book-length rebuttal of her memoir "Living History," as well as another book imagining a presidential election matchup between her and Condoleezza Rice.

But as much as Morris professes to be horrified at the idea of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, he claims not to think that Barack Obama would make a better candidate. On Fox, he dubbed the U.S. senator from Illinois the "best thing that's ever happened to Hillary Clinton. Because he can't win. You think about the guy for five minutes and you're not gonna vote for him." Yet, he added: "Obama's in fact a better first than [Clinton] is. First black is better than first woman, in politics."

Perhaps this threat to go into exile is a Dick Morris version of a double-dog dare. Obviously, he'd like nothing better than to see a Clinton-Obama Democratic ticket, if he's promising Hillary Clinton and the rest of us that he'll leave the country if it comes to pass.


By Katharine Mieszkowski

Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Katharine Mieszkowski


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