Under the 5 Following Conditions, Hillary should be the VP for 5 Reasons.

There are a million reasons why Barack Obama should not choose Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his Vice Presidential running mate. No one could list them better than me. Having said that, there are some conditions under which this lonely voter with one single, humble voice could see where Barack could reach out and make even more history and offer her the position:

1.) Memo to Hillary and her campaign (including Bill): No more assaults on Barack Obama's character for the duration of the primary. None. That includes any remotely snide comments about Reverend Wright, or questioning of Obama's qualifications to be Commander and Chief, or diminishing Obama's experience, his oratory, his supporters and the states that he won. None. Zero. Not one more. Zip.Com

Along with the above, Hillary must become a pit-bull in attacking President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain from this moment on. Vice Presidents historically serve in campaigns as the "heavy". Hillary still has a few contests left now to show that she's not against a President Obama, but against the Republicans. She has a short-lived opportunity to prove how she would be on the campaign trail with Obama in these next contests. West Virginia and Kentucky provide a nice dress rehearsal for the VP role. Off Broadway. Summer stock. The job interview has begun.

2.) Hillary and Bill Clinton must understand that any Obama national campaign and administration would not employ any of the following old Washington cult: Terry McAuliffe, Mark Penn, James Carville, Howard Wolfson, Lannie Davis, Bill Press and the rest of the parasites. Obama's message is CHANGE. Those elements contradict his message and how he wants to govern.

3.) Hillary would have to publicly admit that Barack was right about the War in Iraq and that she was wrong. Anything less than a full acknowledgment would be a deal killer. She can not be part of a ticket that fogs up that message. Iraq was wrong from the beginning. The vote to authorize the war was a big mistake. America would like to hear her say it, too.

4.) Bill and Hillary will need to almost get down on their knees with contrition for the racial undertones that they employed in her campaign, they must confront the hurt and wounds they have caused to so many of our party's most loyal voters. Confession is good for the soul. No community in this country is more forgiving than our African-American brothers and sisters, but there has to be some serious sucking up and the Clintons need to, for once in their lives, shut up and listen.

5.) Hillary will have to begin buttering up the public with some very complimentary kudos for Senator Obama. I'm talking about praise here. And not just a single note either, not a single song, but a full orchestra playing wtih a chorale behind them. For if she can find it within her to praise Joe Lieberman, of all people, then I am expecting nothing less than a full scaled symphony of respect and credit to Obama.

Having said all of the above and with those 5 conditions, there is strong rationale as to why Barack and his supporters, like myself, should be willing to consider her. Here are 5 reasons:

1.) Let's face the facts: Hillary brings voters that Barack can't to the table. And more importantly, she brings the love and devotion of her supporters along with her. Only Hillary can deliver ALL of Hillary's voters. Let's not overlook that.

2.) Add Barack and Hillary's primary voters together and it accounts already for enough votes to win the general election. It is the ultimate combo platter...super sized. Our combined turn-out in state after state has been quantum, unparalleled in political history. It's there if we can see it. If we will see it.

3.) Hillary Clinton has proven that she can campaign far better than Joe Biden, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd, Wes Clark and all the rest of the men mentioned to be V.P. She is disciplined, she stays on message, she is tough as nails, she apparently never sleeps more than two hours a night, and it would be nice to have her attacking John McCain and Huckleberry Hound-Dog in the Fall.

4.) It's time for women to take their rightful and deserved place at the highest levels of governing our fair country. No one could ever say that Hillary Rodham Clinton was a token candidate. Ever. No other woman within the Democratic Party, no other woman in America can step into Hillary's shoes now. Like it or not, she's earned her place in history.

5.) Ebony and Ivory. Yeah, I am a sucker for forgiveness and for unity. Nothing in my life time could make for a Unity Ticket greater than these two on a ticket together. And, I think, Americans would like to see a happy ending to the struggle between these two. And not only do I think it would be a landslide ticket, but I think it would mark as big of a change in our history as that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's period.

Five not so big conditions. Five terrific reasons. But the first move has to come from Hillary.

I really, really want to win in November. How about you?

way.

yes, but for us that don't want a third term Bush.....noooooooooooooooooo

other candidates for VP that have REAL experience.

Grandpa Simpson is toast.

Way, way more than you want to win anything.

That'll put us all in our proper places, won't it?

many of them are more driven by the desire to destroy Clinton than to have Obama win.

I thought the word was "obliterate"

change the subject to a smear on Clinton. Smear at any cost. Lie at every occasion. DESTROY!

i would love to see her destroyed after the spectacle she put on display. She sucks and deserves everything said abut her. hows that for direct.

It wouldn't make any sense for her to want to run with him.

...what you wrote about them.

"Hillary would have to publicly admit that Barack was right about the War in Iraq and that she was wrong. Anything less than a full acknowledgment would be a deal killer."


How about one more...

#6: (on her knees, broadcasted nationally) Hillary: "please...please.... let me be the VP. I promise Bill will not be allowed anywhere near the White House."

the second that Obama apologizes for McClurkin.

Look for us shortly to scoop you up sans your bitterness, of course.

no matter how big a stretch the alleged racist comment is, but homophobia does. Please let me know what that shelf life is so I can know in the future. Is it one day, one month?

and no, she does not campaign better - she just refuses to go away and was willing to use her personal money, and lie about it, to stay in the game.

She would have to admit to quite a few more lies before I'd think it was a good idea for her and her cohorts to be anywhere near the White House. The first would be why they supported the lies about the war, then it would be all the lies about her campaign shenanigans, and then we could work on the rest of the lies in her '35 years'. By then, Obama will have served his 8 years and maybe she'd be ready to actually be President.

The humble part... that was sarcasm, right?

;)

She won't have the Chaos voters in November, and she will still have a ton of folks who will go to the polls to vote against her. Look at McSame - he is presumptive nominee and STILL a quarter of repubs will go to the primaries JUST to vote against him! Those same unhappy repubs will hold their noses and vote FOR him rather than have a ticket with Clinton on it win.

Let her fight it out with Scalia. She would be providing a valuable service to this country.

Hillary as VP, after the way she has campaigned would be too toxic. For every voter she brought to the ticket, she would repel two. She has proved to be the anti-thesis of what Obama and his candidacy stands for: change in Washington and our politics, open government, people as active participants in their own governance, dialogue with our enemies, using logic and reason to make decisions, being truthful with the American public even when it hurts...

You get the picture.

Maybe Hillary really isn't the person she campaigned as. Maybe she really does believe in those things. If that's the case, then she's lied to us for the past 6 months. Barack Obama says he is running because of Dr. King's "fierce urgency of now." But Hillary's message is "wait." Let's not trailblaze a new future for our nation. She wants us to go back to the '90s. Voters this year are saying we can do better than that.

She'd make a good Justice. I think she'd also make a good VP. But my 5 conditions are not negotiable.

Much better than Sandra Day O'Connor or my hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She could be a fantastic Chief Justice, someday.

This would be a greater use of her talents, IMO. Wes Clark would be a better VP pick and still bring the majority of Clinton supporters on board.

all young, liberal jurists.

You think Barack has the cojones to pull that one off?

since Thurgood Marshall.

I think Obama would have the cojones to nominate her. She would be a fitting replacement for Justice Stevens, who has served this country magnificently and deserves to be allowed to retire.

We're stuck with him for many, many years. The only justices nearing retirement are all Associate Justices.

But the position of Chief Justice isn't explicitly established by the Constitution.

I don't see why, in theory, Congress couldn't confirm someone else as Chief Justice if there is a vacancy on the Court.

Zephyr for President!!!!!

I'll get right to the point.

#1: I actually completely agree with you on this. The Clinton campaign should begin focusing all of their rhetoric on her own qualifications and begin attacking the Republicans. I mean, she can't just stand up there attacking McCain for 30 minutes, she has to toss in some positive things about herself. But ya, absolutely no more attacks on Obama. Run on her own merits and attack the Republicans, not just McCain, all of them. I actually think if she had ignored herself back in Iowa and just jumped all over the Republicans, she'd have won the nomination with ease.

#2: Change yes, in government and inside the campaign. BUT, why force anyone to throw their advisors under a bus. Penn I can understand, completely. Get rid of him. The rest are longtime Democrats, but really I just think about McAuliffe and Carville. Actually, McAuliffe. Since I know about Democratic fundraising and the REALLY hard work Terry put in for the Democratic Party following 9/11, I think he deserves a second look from Obama supporters. Carville has his many faults, but anyone who has watched the War Room beginning to end knows that the man bleeds for his candidate. Cut him some slack, if he was at work for the Obama campaign you can bet he'd lay some SERIOUS venom on the Republican Party. You also threw in the comment, "The rest of those parasites." That's unfair to longtime Democrats who have always supported the Democratic Party. Basically that's saying that anyone who ever worked for Hillary Clinton is a terrible person and should never work for the Obama campaign. Most Democrats who are above 35 have attended an event and cheered either Bill or Hillary Clinton. Tone down the rhetoric in my opinion, we're all on the same side. NOTE: I supported Edwards.

#3: I don't think either candidate has that different a view on Iraq. I think it's a common misconception that because Hillary voted for Iraq in 2003 that she has a different view about the future of the Iraqi war than Obama does. BOTH know that there has to be a slow withdrawal of US forces, but in a way that doesn't create a genocide and cause the war to spread into other areas of the region. Regardless of anyones view of the Iraqi war when we got in(I was always VERY against it) everyone has to recognize that we can't just leave. The entire country will fall into outright Rawanda type murder. I think both candidates recognize the underlying problem, a lack of international support. If we can get NATO peacekeepers into Iraq in 2 years (similar to the Balkans strategy) we can pull almost everyone out of Iraq. But we broke those people and we have to fix them. That's the real problem. In the end, what good does it do the Obama campaign for their VP to be talking about why this and that. Get it out of the way maybe?

#4: I COMPLETELY disagree. This was a very difficult campaign for them. But I think the race card got played a little bit more on them. They assumed that the black community would support them because the truth is, Bill Clinton loves the black community. He always has. His office is in HARLEM. I don't think it serves any purpose for Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton to be genuflecting in front of the black community. You can say what you want about them, much of it justified, but nothing is served by tarnishing them with the black community. Let that go, we have to forget about those problems.

#5: She'll do plenty of that when it's all over, she has to raise some money for about 2 weeks. I CAN SEE THE QUOTE NOW, "Senator Obama is probably the strongest leader I've ever met, he beat me didn't he?" Talking about Obama has to be forbidden until she drops out.





As for the five reasons why the "dream ticket" should happen..... I agree with it all (maybe 5 is over the top, because I've always considered them far closer in ideology, just he can flat out give a great speech). One thing though, that you forgot....

Healing, you appease that 75 year old white grandmother who has always voted Democrat and wanted to see the first female US President and she always loved the Clintons. Even though she's racist, she might vote for the ticket because she loves HRC. That's brutal reality right there.

She could just as easily drive away a lot of voters who would vote for Obama, but not if she is on the ticket.

there are more votes at stake than those of Democrats in order to win in Nov. Independents will never go for this. Given his message thus far, Obama will focus on uniting the country with a refreshing progressive approach . The Clintons carry far too much baggage and are considered to divisive for the unity and change message to be taken with sincerity.

assaults that you address in Condition (1), I may need three martinis to agree.

Of course we want to win, and we could expand the House and Senate with Obama but I still have a fear that there is too much ire out there from many Democrats (you are well aware of it) and actual hatred in the Independents. She would not bring any republicans over.

We need to win a good % of the Independents because McCain will be strong with them.

I don't know who Obama would pick that would have the passionate supporters that Clinton has, but there may be someone out there who would help more with Independents than she would.

Thanks.

:eyes:

We can only hope Obama is much wiser than his supporters here who want Hillary's help and know how much she can add to the ticket, but want to humiliate her and have her beg.

You do realize this is a general election we're talking about, not a political S&M fantasy?

It was reasonable and it was fair.

Hillary should not be the VP-too much baggage. She would rally the GOP around McCain.

I do agree with your condition #2. In spades! Jeez, it'd at least be necessary to distinguish the Obama/VP campaign from that of Penn/Black/McCain! How can Clinton do that, at this late date?

But more important, this primary has "vetted" Obama by running him through a gauntlet of right-wing swiftboat type smears, esp. in the past weeks after HRC "went negative". It's been relentless and the 527s are still at work, while McCain has laid back and distanced himself. Given a Obama/Clinton ticket, neither one could avoid the incredible tag-team swiftboating that'd immediately occur. Obama couldn't avoid the swiftboating because they'd run clips of Clinton leading the attack. If Clinton tried to turn the page on that, they'd attack her from every angle as an opportunist flip-flopper and she'd be helpless. Clinton herself hasn't been "vetted" for a GE. Her baggage hasn't nearly been rummaged through, and Obama would be crippled by having to defend her (and believe it, the Republican smear machine has a backload of material they've been saving up and fine tuning for just such a chance), while still claiming to represent "change".

Any "pundit" who says Obama/Clinton is some kind of dream ticket is sleeping with McCain.

Teddy Kennedy got over it. She can too.