Thursday, May 22, 2008
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Veepstakes
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
9:41 AM
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Politico's Roger Simon reports that Hillary is pushing hard for the VP nod. And once more, it's worth noting that Barack would be crazy to offer it to her.
First of all, their incentives are not aligned. Hillary Clinton doesn't want to see him win; she'd like to see him lose with herself in the VP slot -- making her the presumptive frontrunner (once again) for 2012. If they would win, Barack would have to put up with eight long years of power plays, backroom betrayals, blatant opportunism and backseat driving (games at which the Clintons are masterful). Ask Al Gore how that all worked out during Clinton I . . .
At this point, having lost the big prize, Hillary Clinton must figure she's in no-(more) lose situation. Publicly pressuring Barack, through surrogates, for the #2 slot means either that she gets it, or that his standing is further damaged among her followers when he denies it to her. So she's either positioning herself as the heir apparent if/when Barack loses, or actually enhancing the likelihood that he will lose through the defection of her constituencies.
If I were Barack, I'd just pick one of her prominent supporters and leave it at that. How ironic for Bill Richardson (who may have endorsed Obama partly in the hope of getting the veep slot) if he would more effectively have enhanced his chance of getting on the ticket by having endorsed Clinton . . .
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The smart thing for the democrats to do would have been to let Hillary be at the top of the ticket and Obama as VP. It would have given him 4 to 8 years to get some experience and IF the democrats did some major reform for the economy, war etc during her administration, Obama would have had a free pass to his own presidency.
However, even in that scenario, Obama would still have had to undergo vetting prior to any election and I still don't think he would/will pass muster in the end. |
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If Hillary has any hopes of being the President, it is to run as Obama's Veep. Whoever Obama picks, if he wins, will be the nominee in 2016. Simply, any sitting Vice-President who has sought the job at the end of an 8-year term has gotten the nomination. (Nixon, Humphrey, Bush-41, Gore.)
Also, getting on the ticket obligates Obama to retire her 30 million dollar campaign debt.
In the very unlikely event of a McCain victory, she is perfectly positioned for 2012, and at McCain's age, it's unlikely he'd serve for a second term, anyway.
Dick Morris had a good point that she brings nothing to the table. Those who were with her all along would rather cut off their right arm than vote Republican, and those who've joined her because they disdain Obama will still disdain Obama.
However, she's going to go into the convention with 1800+ pledged delegates, maybe more if she gets Florida and Michigan seated. It would be hard to deny her the spot if she insists on it, and Bill starts twisting arms on those superdelegates.
So she brings nothing but probably can't be denied. (Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" imitation here.)
Of course, with Hillary as his Vice-President, Obama is going to need a food-taster and a guy to start his car in the morning. |
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She would have the biggest "Told You So" to tout in American political history - whether she's on the ticket or not. |
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