LIMBAUGH COMMENTARY: HILLARY: STAND BY OR BE YOUR OWN MAN

Master political strategist Bill Clinton has apparently added another major client to his stable: wife Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's well-known that in order to extend his presidency vicariously through Al Gore, Clinton has appointed himself Gore's campaign manager. He believes Gore's election and now Hillary's would shore up his legacy.

Clinton told reporters on Air Force One last weekend that he had given his wife advice about her decision to run for the New York Senate.

"I gave her probably the advice I gave everybody: You have to know, you need to know why you want the job. ... You have to be able to tell somebody in 30 seconds, you have to be able to tell somebody in five minutes, you have to be able to give a 30-minute talk."

Knowing Bill Clinton the way we do, we can safely infer that what he was telling Hillary was not that she needed to search her heart to discover why she truly wanted to be senator of a state in which she has never resided. Rather, she should figure out how she can best sell her candidacy to New Yorkers then retrofit that into her campaign profile.

We know that with Bill's assistance Hillary will mount a formidable campaign and that, in time, they will conform her message to what the pollsters tell them New Yorkers want to hear. At that point, Hillary will be able to articulate her three sets of campaign speeches (30 seconds, five minutes and 30 minutes) with as much conviction as if she passionately believed everything she were saying. And with any luck, the pollsters will find that New Yorkers are ideologically compatible with her, and she can just be herself. Time will tell.

In the meantime, let's consider how Hillary might spontaneously respond to her husband's question if under the temporary influence of a truth serum. Please tell us, Mrs. Rodham Clinton why you are really considering running.

A clue might be found in the two components of her almost hyphenated surname: Rodham Clinton. She is probably deeply torn between retaining her identity as the wife of President Clinton and establishing her individual identity.

Throughout her tour as first lady, she has been on a popularity roller coaster with some low points but far more highs. Currently she is enjoying immense popularity.

The problem is that she is painfully aware of the fact that her popularity has a great deal to do with her perceived victimhood. For her, this image is bittersweet at best. Don't forget that she is the one who brought much criticism on herself for emphatically denying that she was a Tammy Wynette kind of woman. She wanted us all to know that she didn't want to be seen as merely a woman who would "stand by her man."

Unhappily for her, that is exactly how she is seen. In fact, had she failed to stand by her philandering man he would be out on his ear right now. Ironically, though, in adopting that doting posture she was trying so earnestly to avoid, her popularity has soared to new heights. To save her co-presidency, this feminist icon has been forced to betray her feminist principles.

With this background, Hillary's dilemma comes into clear focus. She is the subject of unparalleled adulation -- for all the wrong reasons. And she knows it! She craves the public approval she is getting, but to her it's all a lie. She is being worshipped for the wrong reasons.

Now she has to decide whether it's worth taking the gamble of stepping out on her own, carving out her independent image and finding out whether she can cut it. She knows that if she does decide to run for the New York Senate seat she will be forfeiting certain aspects of her image contributing to her current popularity and risking others.

As first lady, Hillary is the wife of the perpetrator of Whitewater, Filegate and Travelgate. As senatorial candidate, she is coequal co-perpetrator of those and more, including Cattlefuturesgate.

As senatorial candidate, she will no longer be the victim. New York is a politically brutal state and her likely opponent, Rudolph Giuliani, takes no prisoners.

As first lady, she is "the smartest lady in the world" other than Eleanor Roosevelt's ghost. As senatorial candidate, she'll meet reality face-to-face and have to sink or swim on her own performance.

Mrs. Rodham Clinton has to decide very soon whether she wants to continue to bask in the false glory as Mrs. Clinton or embark on the perilous journey of seeking to establish her independent identity as Ms. Rodham.

~David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.