If Obama picks Clinton for VP now, he makes himself look weak

It will appear that Hillary is calling the shots.


If he picks Clinton... then he ironically helps the argument that he is NOT the stronger candidate.



She has put him into a box where the ONLY way that he can look like a strong leader is to NOT pick her.


Picking her makes him look like a wuss. It emasculates him.



She gave him a lose-lose choice:

A. Don't pick her... look strong... but piss off her supporters
B. pick her... look weak... but placate her supporters.



He has to bite the bullet and go with "A". She gave him two bad choices, so he might as well pick the one that doesn't figuratively cut his nuts off.

want a running mate that would do that?

He can't cave in to extortion. He can't let her force her way onto the ticket.

Fuck her "supporters" if they aren't willing to get over her to vote for the best ticket in November. FUCK THEM.

They'd use that as a talking point. I can hear it now, "if he can be bullied by Hillary into selecting her as a VP, what's to stop leaders of terrorist nations from bullying him?"

If Hillary wants to help the ticket I hope she doesn't try and strong arm herself, Lanny, Ickies, Bill, and the DLC onto the ticket. Plays right back into the 'weak' story line.

She blew it tonight

A lot can change. No one will remember her speech at the end of July.

It would look wimpy, like she'd whine and he would cave. Not a good message of strength.

It ALWAYS becomes a disaster.

It would be a HUGE mistake....

The clintons believe that he needs HER to win, but that she doesn't want to be V.P., this would be the "best" strategy for going about that mission

will offer the vp to hrc. everyone talking about the clintons being finished. just stop and think for a moment. Hrc controls the fate of one Barach Hussein Obama.That my friends is power and since you all say the clintons have been about power, this is it.

Ben David

would leave him as an emasculated President before he was sworn in.

Obama needs "new" Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans to vote for him more importantly than the votes of vindictive Hillary supporters.

If (shudder) Clinton were the VP candidate, Obama would lose more votes in the first group than he would gain from the second group.

Whether VP candidate or not, she has already indicated that she will work against Obama and for McCain, so that she can run against McCain in 2012.

She displays extreme foolishness since, whether McCain wins in 2008 or not (most likely not), McCain will NOT be the Republican candidate in 2012. The Republican candidate in 2012 will be more formidable than McCain, and the Democrats will need a much more competent candidate to win than Hillary has shown herself to be in the current campaign.

He doesn't need another Cheney!

Very sad article by Andrew Sullivan

The speech tonight was a remarkable one for a candidate who has lost the nomination, though not remarkable for a Clinton. It was an assertion that she had won the nomination and a refusal to concede anything to her opponent. Classless, graceless, shameless, relentless. Pure Clinton.

Her narcissism requires that she deprive her opponent of a night, or a second, of gratification or attention. And she has now won, in her Bush-like version of reality, 18 million votes. Her invitation for her supporters to email their suggestions to her website is pure theater, a way of keeping herself in the spotlight and maneuvering her delegates to demand a second spot on the ticket. The way she is now doing this - by an implicit threat, backed by McCain, to claim that Obama is an illegitimate nominee if she does not get her way - is designed to humiliate the nominee sufficiently to wound him enough to lose the election.

Either way, she is clearly intent on getting Obama defeated this fall if she is not offered the vice-presidency. And if she gets the veep nod, the way she has gotten it will allow her to argue that a November loss was not her loss. It was his. And she will run again in 2012.

She will not go away. The Clintons will never go away. And they will do all they can to cripple any Democrat who tries to replace them. In the tent or out of it, it is always about them. And they are no longer rivals to Obama; they are threats.

Let's see how he gets out of this one.

He doesn't need her mind games on his ticket. He has the coattails and the donors; she's millions in debt from lack of support.

Sensible Dems will vote Dem and he'll get crossover. He needs to keep her influence out of his campaign.

would you vote for him and her?

false.


I think he'd lose more votes than he'd gain.


Nobody votes for a candidate that shows weakness. This move would show EXTREME weakness.

on DU are living in a very sheltered world. There is a very narrow stripe of people that feel as yall do. The rest of the people in this country, don't feel that way at all. And I think they outnumber the Hillary "haters".

but not all.

And certainly not all of the undecideds.

If we (democrats all) continue to behave to badly and trash our own, then what do you think the independents will make of that? DO you think it will encourage them to vote DEM or Republican or not at all in disgust?!?

For the reason you gave, at the very least he now would have to put her through all of the paces along with anyone else on his short list, and keep her waiting well into July. And the more she pushed the more she would propell herself lower on that short list.

letting irrational childish hate ruin that chance would be a real shame




*(gore is the other alternative)

...

Which is the point of become President, right?

just let her pretend to fix the health care system like bill did!

The only thing that would make the majority of republicans happily vote for McCain at this point would be coting against Hillary. Without her, he'll pick up a lot of crossover on charisma alone.

Plus everything everybody else has mentioned upthread: weakness, inability to trust, distraction, and that she is almost the antithesis of his core message (changing politics). He stands to lose more with her on the ticket than without.

has been how many people take seriously the idea that Obama would even think of choosing Hillary as his running mate.

Hillary #2 seems to be the preoccupying question of the evening, especially as her campaign operatives asserted her being "open" to it this afternoon, and her evening speech contained "no decisions tonight".

Only one problem, well actually two. A winning ticket with Hillary as #2 would open up a U.S. Senate seat from New York, and having one Clinton as VP while another is in the Senate... well, let's just say that is a recipe for "DRAMA".
(and whointhehell wants more of that? ... besides the media, wall street, israel etc. and Harriett Christian)

He holds all the cards. He knows having her around would be a disaster to his chances. He is being gracious and magnanimous in victory. No way he seriously considers her for VP.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if he picked another woman as VP -- one who isn't insane.

But I think the chances are greater that he will pick a white man with military creds.

Survey USA.

But now I'm not so sure. Her speech tonight just seemed to contain too many thinly-veiled threats.

It would be all too obvious to everyone why he picked her.

she could've had it by playing differently, but that's life.

wish I could have said it!!