Hill And Barack: Sharing The Ticket?

10 Mar, 2008 by John Hawkins

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There has been oodles of chatter this week-end about the Clintons hyping a Hillary/Obama ticket,

“Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama — this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady.

…Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has endorsed Obama, derided that suggestion. “The first threshold question about a vice president is, are you prepared to be president?” Kerry told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“So on the one end, they are saying he’s not prepared to be president. On the other hand, they’re saying maybe he ought to be vice president,” Kerry said.

Campaigning on Saturday, in Mississippi, the former president was quoted as saying his wife and Obama would be a dynamic duo, “an almost unstoppable force.”

The candidate said last week she and Obama may end up on the same ticket, with her on top.”

At first glance, a Hillary/Obama ticket doesn’t seem to make much sense. It would combine two extremely inexperienced, extremely liberal candidates, both of whom would represent a significant shift from the norm for the electorate.

So, on the face of it, Obama wouldn’t be a great addition to the ticket.

However, Obama’s supporters are getting more hostile to Hillary by the day and it’s getting so bad that if she takes the nomination, the only way she may be able to keep many of them from sitting home or defecting to McCain in November is by having him on the ticket.

Would he accept the Veep slot? Well, there’s a lot of bad blood between the Obama and Clinton camps at this point, so maybe not — but, you can’t forget that this may be Obama’s last, best, shot.

You’re talking about an extremely liberal Senator who is running as a fresh faced, moderate candidate who can unify the country. In other words, his appeal is based on the fact that people don’t know who he really is and what he’s really all about. You put him back in the Senate for four years, when every liberal utterance and vote will reveal a little bit more of the real Barack Obama to the world and he won’t be viable as a presidential candidate in 2012. After four more years in the Senate, the public would just look at him a younger version of Ted Kennedy.

So, it’s now or never for Barack.

But, what about a Barack/Hillary ticket? Would she take it? Probably — beats being a Senator, but why would Barack offer it to her? Other than a few members of the diehard feminist crowd, Hillary’s fans don’t seem to be nearly as rabid as the members of the cult of Obama. Moreover, Hillary brings a lot of baggage to the table. If Hillary is the Veep, then Obama gets tied to all the scandal and sleaze of the Clinton Administration while adding very little to his campaign beyond not unnecessarily irritating Gloria Steinem and a few other nasty tempered ditch harpies.

That doesn’t seem like much of a deal for Obama.