It’s Over
Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Uncategorized |
Hillary Clinton has finally signaled that she will end her presidential campaign and endorse Barack Obama.
For a choice that really could not be a choice, Senator Clinton took an oddly long time.
“We pledged to support her to the end,” Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Mrs. Clinton since she first ran for the Senate, said in an interview. “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”
Hillary can’t undo all the damage that her weeks-longer-than-it-should-have-been campaign has done—these have been fruitful days for John McCain—but she can redress much of it, particularly by assuring her supporters that she is copacetic with Barack Obama and they should be too.
Which still leaves the question of the vice-presidency. Should she get it?
This won’t surprise you, but I think not, for a couple of reasons. Hilary’s mad lust for power will drive her to try to upstage Obama. Running a White House with Hillary and Bill roaming would be extremely difficult. (Unless, perhaps, you named Bill the ambassador to Brazil.)
And if Obama really wants to run as an advocate of change, linking himself with Hillary, who fought a very retro (i.e., dirty) campaign works against that theme.
Finally, Hillary has been effectively pressuring Obama to name her as his running mate. If he does so now, he risks looking weak, vulnerable to being mau-maued.
On the other hand, there are strong arguments for putting her on the ticket as well.
A lot depends, I think, on her actions in the next few days….
One Response
It won’t only be HRC’s actions, but Obama’s actions that count too.
I think the bigger question is if not Hillary, then who would be a great Democrat VP contender? I agree that HRC comes with a lot of baggage, and while it’s certainly in her interest to secure the VP spot, I wonder who else would be as a strong as a contender for the ticket. Unfortunately, the Dems have had a lackluster showing since they secured Congress.