GOP VP Hillary Clinton?
I think Obama should spend the rest of the primary campaign running against the Republicans' McCain/Clinton ticket.
Hear me out...
We all know now that Sen. Clinton has conspicuously and repeatedly stated in recent days that both she and John McCain has a lifetime of experience behind them while Barack Obama has but a single speech. This prompted Rachel Maddow of Air America to observe, "That's what you say when you want to be John McCain's Vice Presidential choice."
That got me going on the following thought experiment: How would a McCain/Clinton "unity ticket" do?
Some (translation: David Broder) would say it is the marriage of two centrists that frustrated Americans have been pining for. Mike Bloomberg? Feh! McCain/Clinton would run away from the rest of the field.
Not so fast.
I think it would ensure that Barack Obama pitches a perfect game shutout in the Electoral College World Series: 538-0.
Think about it:
Obama's already running against both of them and has been for a while. How's he doing? Well, he's raised more money than both of them put together and has a clear path to his own party's nomination.
He should simply put them in a burlap sack together, tie President "Cinderblock" Bush to it, drop them into the middle of the Potomac swamp, and watch them sink from sight.
Think about it.
Make Hillary Virtual VP on the Republican ticket. Force the issue. Watch her fundraising dry up. After all, there is no reason to believe that Republicans would donate to her in any comparable amount -- Hillary unites Republicans AGAINST the Democratic nominee.
So that's a net loss for Hillary, McCain and the Republicans....and a huge net gain for Obama. He'll have to hire a batallion of new people just to open the avalanche of money-bearing envelopes that will swamp his HQ.
And not only that: the Republican base will never, never EVER vote for Hillary; in fact they're not sure they'd vote for McCain WHOEVER his VP is. Hillary would make their heads explode.
The more I think about it, the more I like it.
I think that between now and the Pennsylvania Primary, Barack Obama should campaign as though the Republican ticket was, in fact, McCain/Clinton.
I like it. Essentially, it's what I've advocated all along. It's time to run a populist, anti-establishment campaign now that the entire political and corporate media culture is so roundly detested by the public. In that sense, Obama's "inexperienced" outsider status is an asset and Hillary's long inside-the-beltway experience is the rope that ties her to McCain, the war, corporatist trade policy, etc., etc. It's a shame it has to come to this but Clinton has no one to blame but herself.
Oh, and now that Village gasbags such Russert have already turned to cheapshotting Obama, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by running against them.
I cross posted this on Daily Kos and peoples' heads exploded -- mostly because they think GOS has become "an Obama blog."
But, gosh, to me you frame the race on YOUR OWN terms not theirs. That's just Electoral Politics 101. For Hillary to cede this "experience" frame to McCain is just madness on so many levels.
I'm afraid her time has passed.
I wonder if she really isn't trying to boost the perception of her "experience" by comparing herself with McCain, against Obama. Of course, in my book, neither crashing a bunch of planes (after barely graduating form the Naval Academy) and getting shot down, captured and tortured or being married to the president, give you any great claim to relevant experience. But being a centrist, establishment Democrat old enough to be Obama's mother, perhaps that's the only thing Hillary can try to run on against Obama.
Otherwise, they're all US Senators with no executive experience. Though one has shown consistently good judgement on the major issues of the day, which is the only reason experience matters anyway.
I wonder if she really isn't trying to boost the perception of her "experience" by comparing herself with McCain, against Obama.
It still doesn't make sense. By linking herself with McCain, she cast Obama out of the circle of trust and aligned herself with the Republican nominee for president. Weird behavior for a Democrat who wants the nomination of her party.
All she had to say was, "I have a lifetime of experience and Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." Point made. Why drag McCain into it?
And she and McCain "have crossed the Commander in Chief threshhold?" What does that even mean?
And of course, last (and perhaps weirdest of all) is her next observation: that Obama would make a fine Vice President on her ticket.
Obama, of course, mocked Hillary Clinton today, making the point so many others have made:
“I just want everybody to absolutely clear: I am not running for vice president. I am running to be president of the United States of America.”Advantage, Obama.
"It still doesn't make sense. By linking herself with McCain, she cast Obama out of the circle of trust and aligned herself with the Republican nominee for president. Weird behavior for a Democrat who wants the nomination of her party."
That's assuming she was going after the base. She may have concluded (for good reason) that they are mostly lost to her as long as Obama's in the race and was going for people who think like this. There are many in the Democratic Party and Independents and Republicans who can vote for her in the primaries. He may not be well-liked all over the right but McCain has impeccable bonafides among the war-first crowd and people who are generally afraid of foreign threats.