There are a lot of good arguments against the idea of Hillary Clinton being Barack Obama’s Vice-Presidential running mate but, if Bob Novak is right, the best reason of all is that Barack doesn’t need to piss off his wife:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Close-in supporters of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign are convinced he never will offer the vice presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Clinton for one overriding reason: Michelle Obama.
The Democratic front-runner’s wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party’s nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.
If Michelle says no, then I’m guessing the answer is no.
An Obama-Clinton dream team would be out of the question, for two reasons:
1. Hillary and her husband Bill are inextricably joined at the hip. Choosing Hillary as Obama’s running mate would mean choosing Bill as well. And given the Clintons’ unquenchable thirst for power, they would not be inclined to play-second fiddle, especially to someone who wrested from them the political prize they had taken for granted. From day one the Clinton duo would be scheming to
to usurp control of the Presidency.
2. The news media have made much of Obama’s ties with his pastor, but until a student questioned Chelsea Clinton about the Monica Lewinski affair and someone produced a video debunking Hillary’s account of her dodging sniper bullets in Bosnia, hardly any mention was made in the media of the Clintons’ past. Come general elections, however, one can expect that McCain’s handlers or, if not them, his supporters in the Blogosphere will dredge up the well-documented lies, sleaze and corruption that have marked the Clintons since they teamed up 38 years ago.
Clearly, an Obama-Clinton “dream ticket” is a sure formula for losing the general election. Some voters may still think that the Clintons are for real, but once they know the truth and see through them, they’ll be bolting to McCain, or staying home the day of the election.
My advice to the powers-that-be in the Democratic Party: Dump the Clintons. They are a liability. They no longer bring anything of value to the table, if they ever did.