Academic

Why Obama Should Not Pick Hillary as VP

By Calvin Massey

   The media says it's over, but with the Clintons, it's never over.  Obama could end it by anointing Hillary as VP (with Bill as designated Rasputin), and the implicit threat from the Clintons is that they will mount a credentials challenge at Denver if Obama doesn't make her co-president.  My humble advice to probable-President Obama:  Don't Give In.  Here's why.

    1. A Hillary-tainted ticket will cost Obama a fair amount of independent support -- people who are sufficiently disgusted at the Clintons arrogant, entitled, race-baiting, truth-skirting approach to campaigning that they will not vote for the Dem ticket.  This loss will not be offset by the Hillary loyalists -- mostly feminist extremists -- because they are downright fools to vote for an anti-choice McCain.  In the end, the Hillaristas have nowhere to go but to Obama.

  2. Hillary on the ticket gives the lie to Obama's claim that he is different, that he stands for change that transcends partisan divides or narrow special interests.  A Hillary choice turns Obama into just another Washington pol.

  3. Hillary would make it impossible for Obama to govern.  She would seek to be a second Dick Cheney, even if she governed a bit more openly than VP Darth from the hidden bunker.  And Bill would always be lurking in the shadows, whispering self-serving strategies to Hillary in between bouts of philandering.  Obama might be able to transcend bitter partisanship, and the corrosive effect of special pleading, but he can't transcend the Clintons if they are burrowed back into the White House.

So, do the strong thing, Senator Obama.  Pick Joe Biden, or Sam Nunn, or Tom Daschle, or somebody else with some gravitas.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).