28 May, 2008

The Democratic "Dream Ticket"

Should Barack Obama (D-IL) select Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as his running mate? Tigerhawk gives a resounding "no", and I totally agree.

As he says:

The Clintons are too powerful to control, too ambitious to control themselves, and too untrustworthy to appease.

Also, there's a long-standing rule of thumb in Presidential politics. Never pick a VP candidate that will upstage you. Yes, I know John Kerry (D-MA) forgot that rule, but John Kerry forgot a lot of things, including where he was in Christmas of 1968 and who was President then.

And lets not kid ourselves, while Obama is certainly charismatic and the media loves him, the Clintons are a media force (some might say a media force in the wrong direction, but that's a point for another post), and will often take the spotlight away from Obama. This is not something that Obama can afford.

And she's not going to help him on the ticket. Republicans hate her. Democratic chances this year depend upon limited conservative enthusiasm, much like 2006. He doesn't want to doa anything to get the conservatives motivated. Having Hillary on the ticket might just do that.

Also, he's already going to win Illinois and New York (probably). The only upside of her being on the ticket is the "reunification of the Democratic party", which is a big upside, but doesn't outweigh the downsides, in my opinion.

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