Hillary Clinton: Obama's Vice President?

AUG 21 -- Hillary Clinton Was Never Vetted: According to the Politico, Hillary Clinton can't be Obama's VP -- because she was never screened for the job.

"She was never vetted," a Democratic official reported. "She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it. How would he know if she'd take it?" ...

"This would be the biggest leap of faith ever," the official said. "She's waiting for the text message like everyone else."

JULY 29: Obama-Clinton Ticket Is Seen As Unlikely

The New York Times reports on "mounting evidence that Mr. Obama's interest in Mrs. Clinton for the post has faded considerably, if, in fact, she ever really was a strong contender to be on the ticket with him."

In conversations, Mr. Obama's advisers discuss Mrs. Clinton's role at the Democratic convention next month in a way that suggests they are not thinking of her arriving in Denver as Mr. Obama's running mate. [...]

The feeling goes both ways. Mrs. Clinton has told associates in recent days that she thinks there is little chance Mr. Obama will pick her and that she views the public pronouncements by some of Mr. Obama's aides that she is under review as nothing more than a courtesy.

She has not been asked to provide written documentation to the committee vetting the background of candidates for Mr. Obama. Although Mrs. Clinton probably needs less flyspecking than almost anyone else in the field -- considering how long she has been in public life and how intensively her past has been examined -- the silence from that corner is being taken by Mrs. Clinton's advisers as evidence of where she stands on Mr. Obama's vice presidential list.

JULY 28: Clinton To Embark On "Extensive" Travel For Obama

Terry McAuliffe says Clinton has been busy in the Senate but will start campaigning soon.

"I don't like to relay conversations between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton -- I know they have an extensive travel schedule for her," he said. "The requests have been piling up. Hillary Clinton has done more in her position of anybody that has come in second before. She's been working. She's been making calls. As soon as she gets done with her senate deals, she's going to hit the campaign trail."

JULY 24: Terry McAuliffe Suggests Clinton Won't Be VP

The former national chairman of the Democratic Party who ran Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign this year told 200 Democratic activists in Fairfax County Tuesday that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine would be his party's best choice as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate.

JULY 21: Pelosi To Clinton Backers: Stop Worrying About The VP

Speaker Nancy Pelosi urges Clinton supporters to back Obama even if Clinton isn't his VP. "I don't think we should be making an issue after the primary is over about who should be vice president. That would have been up to Hillary Clinton and would have been up to Barack. And it is up to Barack," said the Speaker ... Pelosi's remarks to the Huffington Post come amidst growing concern that should Obama choose as a running mate a woman other than Clinton - say, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius - he would anger the New York Democrat's backers.

JULY 20: NYT Reports Clinton Is Being Vetted

Democrats said they thought it was less likely now than it was a month ago that Mr. Obama would choose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York as his running mate, though they said she remained in consideration and that she was being vetted.

Comments

[marijam]

If O doesn't pick her, then he doesn't really want to win. She got HALF the votes during the primaries. Personally, I want the dream and if I can't have it, then I'm just not excited about this election. No other woman can take her place.

[wilmamay]

I agree, he says he can reach across the aisle to work with republicans but he can't shake hands with Hillary and do whats best to win.

[mi]

She was/is the strongest candidate for Obama.
Like it or not, don't see anyone else close to her
following.
This is serious people, look at the big picture!

[mamacat]

I will happily vote for the Obama ticket, whoever he chooses to be his running mate.
I think Hillary is qualified, but I am not convinced that she would be willing to take the second fiddle position, again.
While it is necessary to first get elected, it is also important that he chooses someone qualified to be president. How many presidents in the 20th century were shot or shot at? Way too many. The odds against a president surviving his administration are worse than the odds for NASA space shuttle astronauts, and those are pretty bad.

[WFV]

She has as much hope to become VP as I do. Nada. None. Zilch.

[JonRaymond]

The dream ticket would be pretty f**king kick ass, wouldn't it?

[list1955]

I think everyone has totally missed Obama's message.His message of change,unity,reaching across.The man has gone this far because he is extremely intelligent.He wants us all to unite.Remember the debate when he said "Hillary and I were friends when we started and will be when it's done".He's never ruled her out and never said anything belittling about her.I still think he may put her as the VP but he has to allow time for people to see him and what he stands for.Now that he's done that he very well may put her in that spot.So far,he and his campaign has set a fine example of how things should be.This man is definitely a good christian in my opinion and whatever choices he makes always seem so far to be for the good of the people.We should all follow his example and learn from it.We must all work together to achieve peace and prosperity worldwide.All Mcain has ever offered is war,war,war.

[WFV]

These people cannot be allowed anywhere near the White House again. They are finished.

[closetodemfection]

Oh stop your negativity. It's old. She's not going to be VP anyway. Sadly, Obama will lose because of that.

[Rita1]

Hillary cometh, then the middle goeth. The bulls eye Center voter dissolves. The disenchanted republican voter is gone. It's back to crawling through glass to beat Hillary, and thereby Obama, if she's anywhere near the white house. It will be McCain overnight. Heck, half the democrats are exhausted by all things Clinton. Scowling down from her political perch on the Armed Services Committee does not a war strategist make, certainly not a vice president. This is a woman whose history is unfailingly divisive, chaotic, disruptive, disorganized, and whose destinations, one after another, has in all cases been reached on the back of her husband, his machine, his money, and his accomplishment. If we have to have problems, can we please have a set of new problems with some new faces? Besides, with Hillary policy and power come way before the people, because she doesn't really like people, and it shows. She loves wonk so let her wonk in the senate and leave the people to someone with a fresher set of problems.

[RobertAndropolis]

Progressive radio host Ed Schultz has been pushing Sen. Clinton as vp all morning (7-29-08), saying this will get dems a slam-dunk White House. He is forgetting or ignoring or forgiving that Clinton was "doing John McCain's work for him" during her negative campaigning. Schultz was apoplectic about this. And her husband's techniques as well.

This once-called "dream ticket" logic is specious. It suggests Obama cannot win without Clinton, or not win as convincingly. Two criteria Obama has for his vp are that they get along with one another, and that the vp does as he says, someone who is on the same page with him. These criteria conflict after the extreme nastiness of the primary, and the sulky Clinton(s) who by my account came into the primary with a hauty sense of entitlement.

I do not see Sen. Clinton taking orders from anybody, much less someone who she: looks down upon as not ready on Day One, has not passed her ethereal "commander in chief threshold," and has done nothing for the Dem Party except "give a speech." Highly arrogant and condescending and yes, envious. I should think it self evident that at the highest level of government, you must have a second-in-command who--above all else--you trust..

[marijam]

David Gergen on NPR today said that if Obama wants to win, then he should pick Hillary. I agree with Mr Gergen.

[CtJean]

Off thread, but important

O's birthday is August 4th

Let's give him the biggest $$ day in history

Please pass this on

[PennP]

Great idea--how about suggesting his age in dollars--$47, or multiples--$94, $141, etc.?

But we need to make sure to get him money before the 31st of this month, so his July #s are good, too.

[OtayPanky]

Remember what Barack said to Tom Brokaw on MTP last weekend: His major filter for choosing a VP is to have a strong co-executive in the White House. This is the same model followed by both previous presidents.

That's why, as bad as their financial baggage might seem to some purists, that's not the biggest problem with allowing Hillary on the ticket.

The biggest problem is Bill's continued pursuit of other women. Sooner or later he's going to get nailed (no pun intended), just like John Edwards got nailed last week.

If Hillary was VP when that happened, once again we'd be dealing with the Clinton marital sideshow 24/7 in all the media. Any important legislative work she was doing (like, say, healthcare reform) would come to a dead stop.

It would truly be a bad thing for the country to have to go through this sort of nonsense with these people yet again.

[abby4ever]

I don't agree, I think the biggest problem would be having a former, two-term president with an ego the size of his, at the White House. Former presidents sometimes have trouble with the 'former' part of it. Understandably.

[pupbayer]

I never realized that Lynn Cheney, Tipper Gore, or any other spouses of the VPs just hung around the White House all the time. I learn something new everyday.

[japobere]

We've all known this since before the primaries were over.

[luvienne]

stop beating a dead horse. next.

[NoSandwiches]

All this is just stirring the pot. HC has hurt our chances in the fall by her conduct in the primary. She has added insult to injury by her failure to suck it up and get behind our candidate. Huckabee kept in the race longer than he should have but didn't harm McCain by attacking him--he ran for Huckabee, not against McCain and bowed out gracefully afterward. Romney didn't have people saying let Mitt be VP and help pay off his debt or we won't help fund McCain. Romney told his supporters never mind the 25 million--I'll suck it up so you can feel good about giving to McCain. Her supporters continue to hold out helping Obama and they don't seem to want to help HC either--expecting Obama's supporters to send in their 20 dollar bills to help her instead. Now she is too busy being a senator to help elect a Democrat to the White House. Huh.

[mredder4]

"All this is just stirring the pot. HC has hurt our chances in the fall by her conduct in the primary. "

What a crock!

Listen, if Barack Obama (and by extension, his supporters) are in any way still riled up about the primary, well, that's their fault for going into politics wearing rose-colored glasses. You can't have a contest of two parties until the parties have chosen candidates, and that's what primaries are for, nothing less. Barack Obama and those who support him have assumed control of the Democratic Party, not because all Democrats are fanatic progressives now or because his inherent message was "better". He just happened to win (a very thin margin of) more votes than Hillary Clinton. To say her actions damaged the Party's chance in the fall only reveals the underlying doubt of Democrats about THEIR OWN BRAND.

Barack Obama's candidacy should (despite evidence to the contrary) be firing up Democrats. That this year was a conflict in the Democratic camp between pragmatism and idealism (with the winner, idealism, slowing metamorphing into pragmatism after all) is a result of history, not Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics.

This all seems like continuous groundwork being laid to shift the blame to Hillary Clinton should Barack Obama's message (HIS message, not hers) fail to bring enough voters in the fall to give Dems the White House.

[amst]

I have always thought HRC would NOT be VP and still feel that way. She would be a good VP, but a real disadvantage to Obama. She'd still want to fight for the White House.

No, he won't pick her. It's a good thing with all these PUMAs ladies whinning and threatening. All the more reason he shouldn't pick her.

[getrealalready]

Watch out for those PUMAS. They've got some nasty, one-sided claws.