On June 2, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told supporters that she would agree to be Senator Barack Obama’s running mate if he offered her the vice presidential spot. Mrs. Clinton made the remarks in an afternoon conference call with members of the New York Congressional delegation, according to two lawmakers who participated in the call.
Mrs. Clinton prefaced the remarks by noting that she would do “anything to make sure a Democrat would win'’ the presidential election in November, said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from Long Island.
“If Senator Obama asked her to be the V.P., she certainly would accept that,'’ she said. “She has obviously given some thought to this.'’
Representative Nydia Velasquez of New York City recalled the call with Mrs. Clinton similarly, saying: “She said that if it’s offered, she would take it.'’
Is this woman hallucinating? After 16 months of shredding Obama’s policy, character, Values etc. and trumping her “I’m the one, I’m more qualified” position, she expects to be asked to be the Vice President?
How tactless and disgraceful. Remember, her extreme bitching made even McCain laughing and commenting in a rally, " That' s right, just fight amongst yourself to your doomsday". She still refuses to concede to Obama, while saying that she would accept the VP nomination? Huckabee stayed in the race until the end, however he conceded defeat before he talked about being McCain’s VP. Clinton seems to be using this as a threat. Either you ask me to be your VP or I will stay in and take this fight to the convention. Hillaryous!!!
The single biggest mistake Barack Obama could make is to ask Hillary Clinton to become his running mate. Yes, a large number of her supporters are so phenomenally unethical that they won’t support the Democratic nominee, but many of them have made it clear that they still wouldn’t support him if she was his running mate.
Her negatives are severe. She has abysmal ratings with moderate conservatives and conservative Independents. If Obama chooses her as his running mate, he will lose his unprecedented support from both of those groups instantly, and it will probably cost him the election.
She doesn’t come from a state that is in play. She voted for the war in Iraq and hasn’t apologized for it, so he would lose his greatest single advantage against McCain.
If he chose her as his running mate, the opposition would endlessly hammer away at the fact that she repeatedly said that John McCain was more qualified. As Nancy Pelosi said, the moment she said that, she ruled out the possibility of Vice Presidency.
To this day she still hasn’t apologized for her infamous “Shame on you, Barack Obama”, even though it has been proven that the cause of the tirade, his claim that she supported NAFTA as first lady, has been completely verified by the subsequent release of her first lady schedule as well as numerous incontrovertible video clips.
The source that has been fueling Obama’s candidacy is a belief in change. That is why he has run the most successful grassroots campaign in history. If he chose Hillary Clinton, the ultimate shady Washington insider who is hopelessly in the pockets of Washington lobbyists, that momentum may be lost forever.
If she is on the ticket, most of Obama supporters will still pull the lever for him, but with very little enthusiasm. Her race-baiting, class-baiting campaign has been unforgivable, so most Obama supporters could not continue to feel nearly as hopeful with her on the ticket and I for one would certainly not volunteer my time, energy and money for Obama with Hillary piggyriding on his back.
May be she would make a good Supreme Court justice. Her alarmingly shameful ethics always seem to arise for political reasons, so may be an apolitical position like that would be the best outlet. She would make a bad vice-president. She would undermine him at every opportunity and taint him with the Clinton administration baggage. There are plenty of women (and men) serving in public office who would make a far better running mate.
Absolutely not! The RNC is already running ads of her infamous lifetime of experience versus a speech comment. Couple her behavior during the primary and the unsubtle RFK assassination “misspeak” and I don’t want her a heartbeat away from the presidency.
She has encouraged her supporters to have enough reservations towards Obama are enough reasons why he shouldn’t even consider her anywhere on his cabinet. Hillary should just suck it up and support Obama for the good of the party and the country and bring her supporters with her.
Source: Several online blogs in New York Times since June 2, and my own feeling of the grassroot politics in US.
Cartoon: Coutesy Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com
