No way
There's no way that Obama will take Hillary as VP, is there? It would be a complete fucking disaster.
posted by steve at 5:01 PM
A locus for eccentrics (hopefully)
There's no way that Obama will take Hillary as VP, is there? It would be a complete fucking disaster.
posted by steve at 5:01 PM
3 Comments:
My head agrees with you. It *would* be a fucking disaster. First of all, having Hillary Clinton on the ticket would energize the GOP base in a year when they would seemingly be too disinterested to participate. She is worth millions of dollars in free advertising for the RNC, and the base fucking hates her. Secondly, having Hillary Clinton on the ticket would seemingly undermine much of the fundamental force and thrust behind Obama's candidacy as she seems to represent everything he does not (status quo, ect). So my head agrees with you.
But my heart on the other hand is just too worried right now about the Reagan Democrats, the blue collar voters that the GOP lost to Bill Clinton in '92. These are the people, along with women, we are told, that keyed HRC to wins in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Michigan and Florida (even if the latter two are bullshit). It seems like this contest has gotten so bitter that Clinton supporters are just not going to go for Obama in the general election. I know its a horrible sampling to make a generalization from, but you should check out the comments on her web site this morning from thousands of loyalists. Virtually ALL of them are saying that they will enthusiastically support McCain in November. I know that this is a small and deranged sampling of the population at large, but I can't help but worry that lots of Clinton supporters have been enraged about how she lost and the tone of the Obama campaign and the media coverage (never mind that these complaints are pure fiction). These people are classic swing voters, and a lot of them flat out hate Obama. Since McCain is portrayed as a moderate Republican, they may well vote for him or sit at home. If either of those things happens, its lights out for Obama. So, he may have no choice but to appease these people by putting Clinton on the ticket and bringing them back into the fold somehow.
My brother and Dad tell me that I am crazy, that when the heat of the primary campaign dies down, the Reagan Democrats and Clinton supporters will survey the landscape and conclude that McCain is an unacceptable alternative. They go on to argue that Obama's charisma will unfold over the next five months and win a lion's share of them over to his side, even without her on the ticket. My brother also reminded me that all Obama has to do is hang GW Bush around McCain's neck and remind women about McCain's pro-life position and determination to appoint strict constructionists to the Judiciary and they will (albeit unenthusiastically) vote for Obama in droves.
Obama may compromise by putting a high profile Clinton supporter (Evan Bayh, Wesley Clark, ect) on the ticket.
So I don't know. In principle, i would agree with you. Putting HRC on the ticket is a disaster. But you should talk to some of these Clinton supporters. They fucking hate Obama. Asking her to join the ticket may go a long way toward appeasing them and healing the wounds. My only hope is that he can spend the next five months laying out his philosophical differences with McCain and win them over without that type of gimmick.
What say you, Neil?
12:36 PM
Fuck. I can't believe I misspelled Neill's name.
12:38 PM
I hate to keep perpetuating my necrophiliiac mancrush on Hunter Thompson, but "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" did give me a lot of perspective on insider political activity, of which VP vetting is the classic example.
I still think that McCain turns out the brown vote on the basis of his immigration amnesty, which cancels out the black vote, and takes a majority of the white vote by virtue of also being white.
5:54 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home