Obama signaling a VP slot for Hillary?
posted at 9:10 am on May 9, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Did Barack Obama send a subtle message to Hillary Clinton about the potential for her to join him on the Democratic ticket last night on CNN? The Guardian picked up on the nuance in Obama’s generous description of Hillary to Wolf Blitzer, all the way across the pond. The Obama campaign wants an end to the internecine battling and may have sent up the biggest signal yet that they’re prepared to cut a deal — or it could just be a gracious way out of a routine question:
Barack Obama yesterday gave the clearest hint yet that he may consider Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential running mate in the November election for the White House. With the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination close to finished as a contest, Obama began looking beyond his battles with Clinton to the one with the Republican John McCain.
There are six more primaries left on the Democratic calendar, but Obama has established such a formidable lead that Clinton is no longer realistically capable of overtaking him, and the US media were yesterday treating him as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The possibility of her serving as vice-president seemed unlikely until yesterday, given the personal bitterness that has grown between the two camps in the course of the campaign. But Obama, in an interview with NBC News, refused to rule out the prospect. “There’s no doubt that she’s qualified to be vice-president; there’s no doubt she’s qualified to be president,” he said.
In an interview with CNN , he said he had not yet wrapped up the Democratic nomination, but when he did he would start the process of selecting a running mate. “She is tireless, she is smart. She is capable. And so obviously she’d be on anybody’s shortlist to be a potential vice-presidential candidate,” he said.
Take a look at the moment for yourselves. Signal or boilerplate?
I’m still not convinced. Of course Obama will say nice things about Hillary; at some point he’ll have to live with her as a significant player in his party, but not necessarily as a running mate. Especially given the context of the question, in which his connection to working-class voters was questioned, he can hardly afford to say something dismissive. And stating that Hillary would be on “anyone’s short list” isn’t much of a concession, since the Democrats don’t have many high-profile options for a Barack Obama running mate, anyway.
At its core, the so-called “dream ticket” doesn’t do anything to enhance Obama’s chances. He will carry New York with or without her, and he’ll win the women’s vote as well. She’s beating Obama with working-class voters, but that doesn’t mean she’ll bring them along in a general election; if Obama is at the top of the ticket, they’re still going to remain very skeptical of him, especially when the McCain campaign points out just how far left both Democrats have drifted in the primary. She doesn’t bring any executive experience nor any legislative accomplishments to the ticket, two areas in which Obama needs help from any potential running mate — and her negatives give Republicans two broad targets instead of one.
Hillary may remain on the “short list”, but only desperation will put her on the ticket. Obama would be smarter to look for a popular, centrist Democratic governor who can carry a state that Obama may not otherwise get. Phil Bredesen from Tennessee might be one choice, or someone else in that mold. Janet Napolitano of Arizona might be an even better choice, although it’s hard to see her carrying Arizona over favorite son John McCain in November.
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Be careful how you throw those kind of words around, Barry…your own qualifications are hardly universally accepted.
James on May 9, 2008 at 9:16 AM
So he’s gonna be the pimp and she’s the slot?
Indy Conservative on May 9, 2008 at 9:16 AM
Background noise.
Elevator music.
Con man’s patter.
rockhauler on May 9, 2008 at 9:23 AM
I can not imagine BO wanting to spend the next four years answering questions about Billy Jeff’s orgies on Air Force One.
David in ATL on May 9, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Uhhh, no. Not in a bazillion years.
Dave Rywall on May 9, 2008 at 9:26 AM
GGo ahead Barry . . . good idea.
The thought of both of these Marxist dolts in the same White House at the same time is so frightening that it would drive the
Republican/conservative/independent voter turnout to an unprecedented high.
Drive on Barry!
rplat on May 9, 2008 at 9:32 AM
As VP, it doesn’t increase her chances of winning the presidency in the future. If Obama is in for one term, she’s out for most likely 12 years making her 72 before she has another shot. If Obama is in for two terms, she has 8 years before she can run but she will be 68 and it is unlikely that the democrats would win the Whitehouse in 2016. There is no benefit for her to be VP. Better to stick in the senate.
Blake on May 9, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Yes it does. It negates the sore loser contingent, which is potentially significant.
Beo on May 9, 2008 at 9:38 AM
He won’t offer it, and she won’t take it. As a Senator, she can screw with him for at least 4 years, if he wins the WH.
Besides, the VP slot is supposed to be for someone who can enhance the potential for winning, not for someone who tends to have lots of associates commit “suicide” with gunshots to the back of the head.
William Teach on May 9, 2008 at 9:39 AM
This is exactly why Obama’s judgement will come into question in the general election. None of these people, (including Bubba), should be considered to run our governments highest positions based on their experience, past and present. Besides, what would Bubba’s title be?—-First Vice Lady?
Rovin on May 9, 2008 at 9:40 AM
Michael Moore is more likely to become a marathon runner than Hillary is likely to become Obama’s running mate. It wouldn’t be a plus for Obama in any way. Not that I can see. I don’t think he even likes being in the same room with her, and he’s got much better choices.
RBMN on May 9, 2008 at 9:40 AM
If that happens, Hillary will be our Cheney.
Pcoop on May 9, 2008 at 9:49 AM
You mean working underground, making all the decisions and pimping Hussein?
Some Republicans might be happy because, like Cheney, they won’t be seeing her except maybe twice a year in public.
Indy Conservative on May 9, 2008 at 9:52 AM
I still say that anyone who asks her to be vice president to them will no be long for this world! How very many people “comitted accidently suicide” while the Clintonistas were campaigning for and in office last time? TOO MANY!
Vntnrse on May 9, 2008 at 9:58 AM
That should be interesting. Imagine President Michelle and Hillary trying to work together. Heh!
jeanie on May 9, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Hillary Clinton targeted Imus last April using Media Matters For America, everyone remembers what happened to Imus over the soundbyte even though he apologized repeatedly. Obama insisted that Imus be fired and he wouldn’t work for him..but his PASTOR can RANT away for example GDA and never have to apologize. That is the State of our Union. Would Hillary twist Obama’s arm for V.P Slot why wouldn’t she? I believe the Clintons are capable of well almost anything.
This is an update for the Imus Radiothon for Children Charities he was FIRED in the middle of his Radiothon last April.
19th Annual Imus Radiothon Reports 1.16M @ 9:22 AM, For National Charities, CJ S.I.D.S. foundation, Tomorrow’s Children Fund, Imus Ranch for Children with Cancer and Blood Disorders including Children who suffer from sickle cell anemia and their siblings. 1-877-877-6464 http://www.wabcradio.com
Dr Evil on May 9, 2008 at 9:58 AM
I don’t think Barry is doing all the well with the tin foil hat demographic. Maybe he needs to put Dennis Kucinich on his short list for Veep candidates.
/sarc
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on May 9, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Considering how many of Bill and Hillary’s friends have met an ‘untimely demise’ there is no way I would consider Hillary as a running mate.
When the only thing that stands between a Clinton and the Presidency is my death…
True, nobody has proven the Clintons were responsible for any of the deaths of the reported 200+ people, with a Clinton connection, that suffered an ‘untimely demise’. Nevertheless, it is unwise to place one’s self in the cross hairs.
The Rock on May 9, 2008 at 10:00 AM
I agree with some of the other posters here. My first thought was that he’d better get a food taster if he were to choose her and then win…
golfer1 on May 9, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Actually, personalities aside for the moment, putting Comrade H.R. Clinton in as Vice President would be a shrewd move. As VPUS, Comrade Clinton has a ready made National Platform upon which to work her Alinskyite magic. As President of the Senate, Comrade Clinton can help steer her pet projects through to virtual Presidential signature. Better yet, both of these Socialists want to finish the job started by Woodrow Wilson and Saint Franklin the Roosevelt.
However, Jupiter has a much better chance of becoming another moon of the (now Dwarf Planet) Pluto than Comrade B.H. Obama offering and Comrade Clinton accepting the position.
SeniorD on May 9, 2008 at 10:06 AM
She doesn’t do a thing for him. She would have needed him if she’d pulled it off, but she does him more harm than good.
Bredesen actually would be an inspired choice. He’s almost universally popular in Tennessee and a very non-threatening kind of guy.
Typhoon on May 9, 2008 at 10:12 AM
I have to agree with Beo, at least mostly. I would drop the “potentially”, however. Given there isn’t going to be a healing on our side of the aisle, all they’ll have to do to win is put their house of cards back together.
steveegg on May 9, 2008 at 10:14 AM
A Clinton Coverup?
Hate to open an old conspiracy theory; however, here it goes.
1. When Ron Browns plane went down in Bosnia they sent three teams of experts to search for the flight data recorder. (One each from Boeing, USAF & NTSB)
2. It is assumed that these experts would know what a flight data recorder looks like (orange in color and nothing like a tape recorder).
3. They found it. It is expected that the person who found the flight data recorder would not keep it a secret (allowing everyone else to continue searching for it) but would loudly announce the find and everyone else would come running to see it.
4. I doubt that Boeing would send a team of experts to look for something that did not exist. The aircraft was a military version of the Boeing 737. Every 737 gets a flight data recorder, I know, I am a Boeing engineer.
5. The flight data recorder was sent to Germany for analysis.
6. When it got to Germany the Airforce said it was not a flight data recorder, but a tape recorder. The also stated that the 737 did not have a flight data recorder.
(This is where I scream Bull Crap!)
7. Phil Condit, the Boeing CEO at the time, was supposed to be on that airplane but was detained by a White House staffer in NYC (according to an article published in the Boeing News, the company newspaper).
8. Boeing was in a position to contest the governments assertion that the 737 did not have a flight data recorder. If the Boeing CEO had gone down there was a good possibility that Boeing would not have played along.
Was Ron Brown murdered? I don’t know.
I do know that we have not been told the truth.
How do you spell coverup?
The Rock on May 9, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Hillary has already been vice-president.
Just ask Algor. Sitting helplessly by while Hillary took his White House office, both literally and figuratively, was the worst humiliation of his entire life (not counting his many self-inflicted humiliations).
jeff_from_mpls on May 9, 2008 at 10:14 AM
She floated this the Obama VP a few months back, but the main purpose IMO was to tell voters smitten with Obama that they could still have Obama by voting for Hillary, ie if they were of the belief that Hill was more qualified but Obama their true love, they could have both. I thought it was a smart move along those lines.
BillLalor on May 9, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Veep.
The man wheels and deals his associations with Wright, Ayers, Rezko……this will just be another deal. Denver is going to be a girlscout jamboree instead of Chicago68.
Limerick on May 9, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Gotta disagree that a VP Clinton nomination would be a shrewd move. She doesn’t bring any new or different voters to the ticket and, as the ultimate Washington insider, she works against Obama’s riff that he is something different.
Cranky old bastard is clearly working to get the “moderate” Democrats repulsed by the party’s leftist offerings. Obama needs to work the opposite direction and get moderates and independent conservatives who (like me) thinks the GOP blew it when they selected a divisive bitter candidate like McCain. Hillary is like garlic to vampires when it comes to attracting this group.
highhopes on May 9, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Many people have posted similar comments. I agree. At this point, I think there is a high probability that Clinton will “Vince Foster” Barack Obama. And it is more likely now than later. If Barack were to pick someone other than Hillary as his VP running mate, then taking out Obama would not guarantee Hillary the P slot…the Dem party may give it to the person Obama picked to be his VP.
If Hillary were to act now, she’d likely be the Dem Presidential nominee because she would redirect suspicion from herself to the “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”. But take note that Republicans have no need to “Vince Foster” Barack Obama…we will beat him fair and square in November, thank you very much.
Red Pill on May 9, 2008 at 10:32 AM
I’m back and forth on this-knowing that Hillary won’t be happy with anything less than being the President, but also knowing how tenacious her grip on power has been. First woman Vice President is also quite an accomplishment. But, no matter how often she tells Obama that he needs her on the ticket, I can’t see him or his co-horts giving the plum Veep slot to Hillary Clinton; the candidate of the future doesn’t want to be saddled with the past. His best choice would be a young Governor from a red state. But we all know Obama isn’t always about making the best choices.
Doug on May 9, 2008 at 10:32 AM
We can protest McCain up until the convention, but once we have a nominee we need to support that nominee (unless that nominee picks a Democrat VP, then all bets are off). We simply cannot let Obama pick Supreme Court Justices.
Red Pill on May 9, 2008 at 10:35 AM
It is not game over for Hillary, not by a long shot. Everyone wants her to step down for the good of the Democratic Party, but she never will, never. It’s because Hillary is not in this for the good of the party. She is in it solely for herself. Her entire life has been dedicated to this end point, and she will never give up on her own. Her strategy is simple. She is going to stay in through June 3rd, working to achieve enough pledged delegates to keep Obama from reaching the magical number that puts him over the top. Adding the Michigan and Florida votes will not put her over the top either, but will move the goal posts farther away. That way, she has until the democratic convention in August to woo, bribe, coerce, intimidate, or blackmail enough super delegates to win her the nomination. And this is something she can work at behind the scenes, out of public view, where she can employ the real Clinton tactics. Nope, asking her to quit now is like asking a Mt. Everest climber to stop 100 meters from the top.
syncrodude on May 9, 2008 at 10:43 AM
I can see the derisory slurs now : Afro Tutti Frutti
LimeyGeek on May 9, 2008 at 10:52 AM
The Clintons and their operatives have been the alpha dogs of the Democratic Party for the past 16 years. It’s almost impossible to see Hillary, Bill, Wolfson, Ickes, Blumenthal, etc. suddenly becoming subservient to Obama and his strategists, unless Barak is willing to throw David Axlerod and his crew under the bus and put his trust in the Clinton people.
(On the other hand, if they did and actually were to win the election, watching the Clinton people try to wrest power from the Obama folks when it came to setting behind-the-scenes policy and the prominence of Bill and Hillary in the Obama administration would be like watching four years of the most violent episodes of “The Sopranos”. Fun on a mindless level of schadenfreude for conservatives, but a disaster for the country with possible life-threatening consequences.)
jon1979 on May 9, 2008 at 10:53 AM
She will continue to play the race card against Obama until November, whether she is the nominee or not. Her last chance is 2012.
pedestrian on May 9, 2008 at 11:08 AM
SeniorD on May 9, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Gotta disagree that a VP Clinton nomination would be a shrewd move. She doesn’t bring any new or different voters to the ticket and, as the ultimate Washington insider, she works against Obama’s riff that he is something different.
Ah, there’s the rub. Both candidates are far to the left of the American Mainstream and both have the same Teacher/Mentor in Saul Alinsky. Both candidates loathe each other as only True-Believing Socialists can hate The Enemy. Letting Comrade Obama play his riff while Comrade Clinton does her helps The Cause.
Election of a combined Obama/Clinton ticket transcends baggage and history; in effect granting forgiveness for all the little ‘Oooopsies’ in the past. Both get a ‘Clean Slate’. Comrade Obama, as a new face and ‘Hope’ can become the public face while Comrade Clinton plays in the back alleys as the Power Behind the Curtain.
SeniorD on May 9, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Hillary has completely suckered Obama. She has sub-optimized after realizing quite a while ago that she isn’t going to be the Democratic nomineee.
Of course Obama is going to offer her the VP. He has zero choice now, there is nobody else that will bring in the voters Hillary is winning in the big states. This was the whole point of her campaign since Super Tuesday.
And she is very noisily going to turn it down, and then do everything she can to sabotage Obama in the general. She knows he isn’t going to win in November and she won’t be part of it. After this he’ll be done and she’ll be the presumptive nominee in 2012. Clintons do not do second place.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
rockmom on May 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM
No joke, if it weren’t for the Supreme Court I might even root for that just for the sheer entertainment value.
I think there will be an elaborate dance here, in which Obama will sort of offer Hillary the VP slot and she will “magnanimously decline it so he can pick someone he really wants to work with,” yadda yadda yadda. In reality neither one wants it, but they are going to be forced to pretend that they do in order to mollify Hillary’s big donors and supporters. Then Hillary is going to do everything she can to sabotage Obama and make sure he loses.
One thing we all know about the Clintons is that they do not give a damn about the Democratic Party. Hillary will never accept second billing “for the good of the party” and she won’t care if John McCain is elected for a single term. She may very well go back to the Senate and get herself elected Majority Leader, which beats the hell out of Vice President anyway.
rockmom on May 9, 2008 at 11:36 AM
I think it would be a huge plus for Obama’s chances of winning the election, actually. I can only hope that Hillary sees that even with her on the ticket they will not be assured of winning the “bitter” blue collar Americans who Obama so clearly despises.
funky chicken on May 9, 2008 at 12:25 PM
I agree with the first part of your post, but disagree with the second. I think it’s 50/50 on whether she accepts the job offer. It may even be 65/35 in favor of her taking the VP offer, which is why you’ve heard less acrimony from both campaigns for a few days.
funky chicken on May 9, 2008 at 12:27 PM
If Obama were to ask Hillary to be VP, I would stay out of Dallas. Or the park they found V. Foster in.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on May 9, 2008 at 12:28 PM
It’s been Obama playing the race card. Hillary’s just telling the truth about election returns….and about the Jeremiah Wright stuff and how it effects the electorate.
funky chicken on May 9, 2008 at 12:29 PM
While anyone in front the Klintoons has a certain risk, and that would be especially true if Barry gets into the Whit — I mean, the Black House in partnership with them — I think that as long as Barry has Michelle watching after him, he’s quite safe.
ich dien on May 9, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Personally I think that Hillary would be a better match with McCain.
MB4 on May 9, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Wrong. And wrong.
She’s only qualified to apologize to America for all the illegal, unethical, underhanded and deceitful crap she’s been pulling since the 1970s.
whitetop on May 9, 2008 at 2:04 PM
The mere possibility of his considering this corrupt lawyer as VP renders Obama even stupider than we thought.
whitetop on May 9, 2008 at 2:08 PM