Today (Thursday, June 5), Senator Clinton sounded a conciliatory note regarding Senator Obama's forthcoming selection of a running mate--well, sort of (or, from another standpoint, not at all...). She said in a statement that she is not actively seeking the V.P. slot and the choice of his running mate is "Senator Obama's and his alone." Given that Senator Obama's win in Montana was substantial enough to put him over-the-top not only in the pledged delegate count but also the popular vote (by any rational standard), in one sense Senator Clinton's statement was simply a repetition of the facts.
But in another sense, it was a very necessary thing to do. This is because even her staunch supporters on Capitol Hill sounded openly and outwardly frustrated on Wednesday, given the odd note(s) she struck in her post-primary-season speech on Tuesday night. Several of them went on television and the radio to complain that her speech was not "unifying" enough, and it left in limbo a lot of people who had supported her but would gladly support Senator Obama once he had the necessary delegates to be the Democratic nominee.
The sense of confusion in the air across the country (displayed brilliantly by Stephen Colbert when he said Wednesday that everything had been cleared up in that "...Senator Obama will be the Democratic nominee and Senator Clinton is going all the way to the White House!") left people of all political persuasions in a state of bemusement, confusion, and/or annoyance, some of which (excluding "annoyance") may have been what Senator Clinton was after. After all, if she could steal a little of Senator Obama's thunder on what should have been his big night and his alone--and she did just that--she would show everyone what she is capable of politically and culturally, and why at the very least she should be his running mate.
It probably also helped her pay off some of her substantial campaign debts that during Tuesday evening's speech she asked people to visit her web site in the coming days in order to advise her "what to do" now (as if she hadn't already had a contingency plan in place), given that the money-pledging option had most certainly not been removed from the site after the evening's festivities....
But her strong-arm tactics backfired. The aforementioned frustration and, in some cases, rather public anger of her erstwhile supporters is evidence of that; if she doesn't have them, she loses almost all of her presently considerable leverage. When one combines this with the fact that the Obama camp did not react in a welcoming manner to what they saw as rather odd ancillary tactics from some (though certainly not all) prominent Clinton supporters to either publicly bully Senator Obama into putting her on the ticket (Lanny Davis, et al) or act as though they could shift everyone into an alternative universe (a wild-eyed Terry McAuliffe announced Senator Clinton as "...the next President of the United States!..." as Senator Obama crossed the delegate threshold Tuesday evening), one gets the sense that the panic buttons must have been going off at Clinton Campaign Headquarters all day Wednesday and early Thursday.
Now, before I continue, I'd like to be clear regarding my own standpoint: I am not suggesting that Senator Clinton should have conceded on Tuesday night (though others do suggest that she should have conceded immediately), but in that speech she should have indicated that she would publicly address the status of the Democratic race later this week or, even better, this coming weekend. That would have given both candidates a few days to cool off regarding each other (though Senator Obama would, obviously, continue actively campaigning in a general-election manner, as he has done), and it would have given Senator Clinton a few days' media buildup prior to making a gracious exit from the campaign while simultaneously letting the world know that she would do all she could to help Senator Obama win the general election this coming November.
Instead, on Tuesday we got confusion, and on Wednesday we got hints that Senator Clinton might end her campaign this weekend but also got indications that her inner circle would continue strong-arming Senator Obama publicly (which surely cannot help the Democratic party look as though it is "uniting"). Given Senator Obama's kind words regarding her on Tuesday evening, if she had carried on in this way much longer she would have risked looking like a petulant bully whose growth has been stunted to the point where she's been passed in size by a formerly potential victim, but due to spite is doing everything she can to give the now-taller kid a bad time, anyway.
That's not what the Democratic party needs right now--certainly not in an election year in which, if they play their cards right (and it remains to be seen if they will do that with consistency from now until the general election), they will have a good chance of taking back the White House and of increasing their majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. It's also not what Senator Clinton needs to do insofar as her political future is concerned.
She's obviously received the message. As previously mentioned, she has today announced that Senator Obama's running mate choice is his alone, which should slow--if not stop--the public strong-arming of Senator Obama being done by some of her supporters. (Of course, she may work rather vigorously behind-the-scenes to see if she can win the role of his running mate.) And it now looks as though she will concede the nomination this coming weekend (Saturday, by current reports). Some semblance (at least) of initial Democratic unity to start the summer months may occur, after all.
That also means that it's time for Senator Obama to consider putting her on the presidential ticket. (I'm fully aware that Senator Clinton's change in tactics was undertaken in part to make us think this way.) I'm coming around to this idea, mostly due to the fact that Senator Obama and Senator Clinton on the same ticket would be electoral gold; they won about eighteen million votes apiece during the nominating process (those are enormous numbers for a nominating process), and if they at least managed to get along on the campaign trail they could probably build their support base outward from there. Certainly, she would bring a huge percentage of her voters (many, though not all, white women and Hispanics, as well as a substantial amount of blue-collar voters) immediately into the Obama camp, though it's true that some would probably still refuse to vote for him.
The drawbacks of adding her to the ticket are certainly obvious, too: she would seem to counter Senator Obama's argument of the necessity to bring an almost full sea-change to the White House; she could steal a lot of his limelight, given that she has the mentality of a leader as opposed to someone who could switch gears and be a strong and loyal #2; the Bill Clinton factor could mean just about anything, good and bad, at just about any point; etc.
But she deserves the right to be considered strongly as a running mate selection for Senator Obama. In my May 27 post, I presented my top half-dozen choices to be Senator Obama's running mate. Many of those folks will be on the very brief list I will now provide, so you can look at that post to see my reasoning for each one. For now, with Hillary added, this is what it looks like:
1.) Joe Biden (my #2 pick for Secretary of State)
2.) Mark Warner
3.) Kathleen Sebelius
4.) Bill Richardson (my #1 pick for Secretary of State)
5.) Hillary Clinton
6.) [tie] Wesley Clark and Sam Nunn
(Note: yes, Jim Webb is at #7....)
5 comments:
Frankly, I think Mark Warner won't go, though he'd be perfect, imho.
If given a personal preference, I'd rather not have Hillary. However, since she will bring considerable votes/voters who might otherwise stay home, or heaven forbid, vote for 4 more years of Bush's disasterous policies and total corruption of the office, I'd much prefer her as Veep, to McCain as President.
Frankly, somone like John Brieaux of Louisianna (and no, I probably didn't spell that right), would be a good choice too.. Conservative Southerner - never bad as a unifying ticket draw, that or someone from a swing state like Colorado, or better yet, Ohio/Florida/Pennsylvania. Come to think of it, Hillary has some roots in PA - maybe she's got more to offer than we think :).
Yes, I agree: Hillary Clinton would be electorally handy, so she needs to be considered, though obviously that would complicate Senator Obama's overall message, which could prove tricky.
Mark Warner informed his staff last week that he is "on the list" of possible running mates for Senator Obama....
It wouldn't hurt to have someone with the title "General" as a running mate this time around....
No one can discount the chief executive accomplishments of Richardson and Sebelius.
Joe Biden or Sam Nunn (he's a Southerner) might be very strong compromise picks.
Would Hillary Clinton really be change we can believe in?
Either Bill Richardson or Joe Biden would be excellent choices...
James, I think Senator Clinton would complicate things for Senator Obama; if he wins the election, there will be the main branch of the chief executive office and a sort of "government in exile" in the V.P. office. But numbers are numbers, so Senator Obama will have to at least consider seriously putting her on the ticket.
And, yes, Biden and Richardson, though very different, are strong possibilities (though Biden may be a bit more acceptable to the Clinton crowd, given Governor Richardson having so publicly endorsed Senator Obama. A good compromise with Governor Richardson might be to make him the Secretary of State if the Dems pull off a victory....
Post a Comment