Clinton Most "Interesting" VP Choice

I once heard a Chinese curse that goes something like this, "May you have an interesting life." In that spirit, as the end game for Barack Obama's running-mate selection plays out, Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the most interesting.

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The rumored finalists are not likely to be water-cooler topics beyond the world of political junkies. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden did not exactly set the campaign trail on fire in his failed presidential bids. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh could not distract a crowd from watching paint dry. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius are unknowns with little to offer that would make voters especially eager to know them.

Unless an electrifying name we have not heard is in the wings, only Clinton would be a really big story. Which is, of course, not necessarily what Obama needs. Still, she is the only choice of the expected possibilities who would surely set tongues wagging.

But in this case, perhaps interesting would be a curse.

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Comments

[texanna]

I disagree with your last statement - I think Obama desperately needs a big story! Something to get the juices going again as opposed to just oozing out a little of the time with a FISA flip here and reposition on reproductive rights there. That meme about energizing the Repubs, I don't think so. And the comment about Bill in the WH, last I checked the VP family lived in the Naval Observatory which Cheney had removed from Google Maps!

[JohnnyBoyyy]

I know how you feel, Craig - Obama MUST win this thing! Reading more about the "short list" of VP contenders that NO average American "low information" voter has even heard of on the MSM scares me.

HRC just might be the surprise Obama needs to push the Magic Polls in his favor and start pulling ahead. After the primary I had hard feelings about HRC (along with other long standing reasons to rule out HRC). But, we KNOW she could chew Blinky McSame up! The problems everyone has mentioned with HRC as VP would need to be worked out by the Obama team AND HRC would need to sign off on the list.

Can you imagine Obama getting up in the night for a snack in the kitchen and finding Wild Willy there fixing himself a sandwich?

More thought is needed on this!

This is OUR Moment - This is OUR Time!

Obama '08!!!

[vsign]

Hopefully, Hillary made it clear from the beginning she would not be the VP on a losing ticket. I am sure she was very nice to O when she said no. She can help the American people alot more with the power she has in the Senate. Hillary is like Cherry Ames, the Army Nurse. She will get us health care or die trying. She's my kind of gal!

[nomobull]

yeah right, not

[PumaAnn]

Hill is obvious, so she won't be the VP.

Thankfully.

[Samson1]

I agree. I do think that it is obvious by now that a lot of Obama people would rather lose than either add Clinton or change the campaign to one that is more direct and hard hitting. Perhaps this is because they are so committed that they can't believe that Obama CAN lose. Wonder when that will sink in and if it will be too late.

Does he need a big something? You bet! McCain is getting his ads played on nightly news for free. McCain is gaining in the polls. Obama appears dead in the water.

[nomobull]

she lost

[hudsuckerproxy]

Clinton would generate buzz and probably help Obama secure the election, but what then? JFK and LBJ were reluctant bedfellows (to put it mildly) and, as it turned out, their White House partnership was a nightmare for all concerned. Obama must be keenly aware of that unhappy precedent.

[RobtBrock]

Colin Powell would be an interesting choice.

[harriscrl3]

Interesting to you nightmare for Obama especially when her husband is bought into the mix. Her husband by the way who is praising McCain on the stump.

So NO NO NO to any Clinton. I personally think Obama needs to get them out of his camapign.

What Obama needs to do is to get back to his inspirational speech he is too policy wonk thats NOT his strenghth he needs to go back to large rallies. The one good thing about this convention is the fact that he gives his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 thats what he needs to start doing CAN the town halls ENOUGH Let McCain do them.

Lets get back to reving people up

Carol

[texanna]

Bill Clinton is not praising McCain on the stump -- I'm really tired of the disinformation that Obama's supporters are so happy to engage in when it's not about their candidate.

[nomobull]

and you have proof that this came from obama's cAMP

[newdreams]

I agree. Clinton got nearly 18 million votes in the primaries - That is nothing to take lightly at all. This would be the OBVIOUS dream ticket, but there are a few nagging questions about the way she is handling the fund raising for the retirement of her debt and her lack of adequate visability in support of Obama after the primaries.

[JimR]

Dream ticket? Try NIGHTMARE.

She would drive away many Obama supporters, including African Americans, she brings built-in negatives among moderates and independents, whose support will be crucial, and she will energize the Republicans like no else can... including John McCain. Why in the name of God would you want to set all those things in motion?

[Jonny38103]

Because we're afraid he can't win without her. It is up to Obama to unite the party. And without her on the ticket, that probably won't happen. Remember, Obama barely eked out a win in the primary season; acting otherwise is like saying Bush had a mandate with barely 1/2 the vote.

[texanna]

Really, she would drive away Obama supporters, but Bayh wouldn't? How's that work, exactly, since Bayh was not only FOR the Iraq invasion, he's been an ongoing, ardent supporter of the occupation! How is that Obama's supporters could be driven off by Sen. Clinton and not by Obama's abandonment of them with his FISA reversal?

[kcmookie]

I really hope Obama does not pick Hillary, but if he does I am good with that. I have faith in Obama.

People keeping asking me who I want for VEEP because they know I am a big Obama supporter, what I don't understand is why it is that important. I don't care who he picks, I am voting for President, not Vice President. I understand the role the VEEP plays, I just don't understand what role it plays in the actual election. When was the last time a VP changed an election in any appreciable what?

[Donnat]

I'm for Clinton. She's the right VP for the right time. Please, Obama, choose Hillary!!!!

[Allwx]

Hillary is the best choice. She has huge voter support. Impossible that Obama could ignore the 18 million votes she got in the primaries, and how close it was in the final days. They've got to get elected first, and Hillary is the best way to get that job done.

But she needs to be an active partner in the administration, and Obama must make it clear that she will not just be pushed aside to bake cookies in the VP mansion. Put her in charge of big issues, like healthcare, and equal pay. She's a fighter, and would make the Obama team a tough one to beat.

[craigjjs]

Great idea! Put her in charge of healthcare. That worked out really well the last time.

[JimR]

Most of those 18 million are going to vote for Obama anyway. Sure, there will be some holdouts, that's to be expected. But to suggest that all 18 million who voted for her won't vote for Obama unless Hillary is on the ticket is just ridiculous.

"Put her in charge of big issues, like healthcare"

Let's see, the last time she was in charge of health care, she held secret meetings, then tried to shove her plan down everybody's throat, refusing to compromise. That pissed off Democrats AND Republicans, who cited her tactics as a reason to vote for them in Congressional elections. The next election, Republicans gained full control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Yeah, no thanks.

[texanna]

Her meetings weren't secret. You must be confusing them with the energy czars that Cheney called to his energy summit right after the 2000 coup d'etat. The health care summit was covered widely by the media. The Congressional Republican leadership sabotaged the plan after she gave them a preview. What she learned from that experience is that the Republicans are not your friend, they are not interested in working with you, that Republicans see only we win and you lose and nothing else. The health care initiative was not the impetus for the Contract with America that Newt G used as a tool to get control of Congress, but if you want to keep that mythology going to feed your hatred of Clinton -- go right ahead.

[Freesia2]

One of the senators (I believe he's from TN) who tried to work with her on that said recently that if she had been willing to compromise at all, a form of heath care would have gone through superior to the nothing that was available. It wouldn't have been perfection, but it would have been worth having. And by now? We'd have had it for over a decade. Think of all the people who could have had care.

And her position in the primary sounded just about as uncompromising. (Which is fine as a starting position as long as you accept that that's what it is. A starting point. In any bargaining you ask for 100%, all of it, knowing you won't get it but you can haggle from there. And eventually you can ask for more.) But I had a feeling we were in for another all-or-nothing battle, which would result in, once again, nothing.

[Fabienne]

Only if "interesting" = toxic.

[rinpochet]

I would love to see Wes Clark. It would immediately shut down McCain's so-called "military" experience. He would be absolutely perfect and out of the blue. Would be such a surprise that it would shut down McCain's VP pick after the convention.

[truthskr]

Let it go, it's over. Please stop trying to ram a VP candidate, any candidate, down Obama's and the Democratic Party's collective throats. People, particularly those in the media such as yourself, who keep pushing Clinton, who I would happily vote for by the way, just want her on the ticket for the infinite hours of coverage such drama would provide. Obama together both Clintons (because we ALL know Bill would shove himself right to the front and then refuse to move for either Obama or his own wife) - ratings gold, I'm sure, but a nightmare of a GE campaign for so many reasons.