Analysis: Clinton era may be ending

By ADAM NAGOURNEY - The New York Times

After 16 years, the Clinton era may be coming to an end, presenting Democrats with a historic but potentially wrenching transition and a challenge to Sen. Barack Obama as he seeks to reconcile a deeply divided party.

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been at the heart of the Democratic Party since Bill Clinton steered it back to the White House in 1992, with a campaign that combined a moderate appeal with hard-edged political tactics. Hillary Clinton seemed poised last year to lead Democrats into the general election campaign if not beyond.

And while the relationship between the party establishment and the Clintons has always been uneasy, an entire generation of Democrats has known no other dominant figures.

Clinton said Wednesday she would remain in the race despite her double-digit loss in North Carolina and winning only narrowly in Indiana. Also Wednesday, aides disclosed Clinton had lent her campaign $6.4 million since mid-April, on top of a separate $5 million loan in February.

But across the party, Democrats — including some of her own supporters — were confronting an increasing likelihood that the Clintons would be swept aside as the party prepares for a new era with a leader, in Obama, who comes from a different generation and promises a very different style of politics.

“There is going to be a new set of people running the show,” said Simon Rosenberg, the executive director of the New Democratic Network, an unaffiliated political action organization. “You’re going to see a new generation of political leaders coming to the fore.”

Certainly, no one is expecting a couple with such political skills, an extended network, history and broad appeal — not to mention fundraising power— to disappear from the Democratic stage. Hillary Clinton presumably would return to what could be potentially a very high-profile role in the Senate. Bill Clinton never has been happy on the sidelines.

But Obama’s move to the brink of the nomination was fraught with symbolism and evidence of a party in transition. A first-time presidential candidate, he so far has outmaneuvered the vaunted Clinton political machine.

He positioned his candidacy as a repudiation of the kind of politics the Clintons practiced. And he drew thousands of new voters and donors into his fold.

“The Clintons had an important role in the recent history of the Democratic Party and will always play some role, given their success at bringing this country peace and prosperity,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who backed Obama. “But elections are about the future, not the past. It’s a new era. This is a new spirit that’s out there.”