Why Mrs. Clinton was not picked
August 25th, 2008 by Ismail Ginwala For all the Clintonites out there that have held onto a faded hope that their woman will become the Vice President of the United States, this will perhaps help you ease into the idea of seeing so many “Obama-Biden” signs in the months ahead. You guys look like a child on Christmas morning finding socks under the tree.
Hillary Clinton has always been the wrong choice for Obama’s VP spot.
A need for Clinton will expose a Democratic split – If Barack Obama required Mrs. Clinton to be his running-mate in order to unify the Democratic party, then we have already lost. While the Republicans have come together to rally (somewhat unenthusiastically) behind their candidate some 32 years ago (Isn’t that how it feels?), we Democrats have been fighting amongst ourselves and causing Obama to open a two-front campaign war against an offense from both Clinton and McCain. That is over, we can finally put that episode behind us and embrace Senator Obama as our nominee. However, we cannot show the Republicans any intra-party breakdown on our part. We can let the Republicans moan and complain about how McCain isn’t as big a social conservative as they would like, but let’s not do something similar and far more catastrophic.
Three’s a crowd – Don’t kid yourselves, it wouldn’t be an Obama-Clinton ticket. But you can assure yourself that it would’ve been an Obama-Clinton-Clinton ticket. It’s been painfully obvious what Bill would do to support his wife in the campaign trail alone, but can you imagine how his influence would’ve grown as the husband of the Vice President? Bill and Hillary come in a neat little package, for better or worse. This package can and will have a tendency to steal the spotlight from the true president as “Bilary,” compromising his leadership position and forcing the White House to waste valuable time controlling the Clintons as opposed to cleaning up President Bush’s mess. Bill and Hillary are loose cannons, something that cannot be tolerated in Obama’s well-disciplined inner-circle.
A divisive symbol – Hillary Clinton is not the most divisive politician in the world, but you cannot help but notice how Republicans cringe at the sound of her name (Much like we do with Ann Coulter… *shudder*). She’s been unfairly labeled many things in the past, but there’s no escaping that this has caused her to have an air of negativity around her wherever she goes. People see Hillary and immediately associate her with negativity, divisiveness, and more recently with an undesirable personality. Obama supporters will see Hillary as the very reason why Obama had a tough time at the primaries. Republicans will see Hillary as the embodiment of everything they’ve been fighting against since 1992.
Far too much bad blood – The fact of the matter is, Hillary Clinton has caused Obama and his supporters to have a far tougher time campaigning than what was necessary. You cannot erase everything that Mrs. Clinton has said and done with a mere VP spot. Hillary Clinton has spent months criticizing every move of Senator Obama and exposing his weaknesses that weren’t even considered before she fought him all the way to the final primaries. Senator Obama has respect for Mrs. Clinton and all that she has accomplished, but can you expect him to ignore the past few months so quickly?
Hillary supporters, it’s over. She has set her actions in stone and no one will ever forget it. We all have our candidates that we wanted to see become president (Kucinich, anyone? …No? Okay….), and yours was the first woman who had a serious shot at becoming Madam President. However, for the sake of the Democratic party, please understand that we need your full support in preventing another 4 years of a Republican White House. This is beyond Hillary and Barack, this is beyond McCain and flag pins, this is you, me, and everyone we know fighting for our futures. Please join us and fight with all your blood, sweat, and tears to put a Democrat in the White House. Your efforts will be forever set in history.
Please comment, whether you agree or not.
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Obama, Veepstakes
August 25th, 2008 at 5:41 am
The bottom line, aka the only thing that matters:
She bumped him up in the polls so much that the Democrats would win by 5-10% points. It doesn’t matter how they govern together if he can’t even get into office.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:00 am
We aren’t electing Obama for the hell of it, we’re electing Obama to properly lead our country in the right (left?) direction. What good is it if we elect a Democrat that faces a ridiculous amount of problems just with his VP?
August 25th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Most people have trouble understanding the attraction to Hillary and why us “Pumas” are so agressive about her candidacy. It helps to know that people have been invested in Senator Clinton for the past decade. They’ve watched her get past her husband’s mistakes and make a name for herself as Senator. She didn’t challenge Kerry/Edwards, it wasn’t her time, so those two had their chance and blew it. 2008 was the perfect time for her, Bush has wrecked everything and it would be impossible for a Dem to loose. Now along comes Obama, the accidental candidate, a guy who probably threw his name in just to see if he would be considered a VP choice. No one was probably more surprised he won than him. Hillary lost for lots of reasons, a really bad campaig strategy, mismanagement of her vast war chest and, no devnying it, super bad media. No candidate has ever had reporters apoligze to her or even been suspended because of what they said about her, than Hillary. Chris Matthews and David Schuster were and continue to be a disgrace to their profession. And, no sucking up to Obama will ever wipe that bias away. OK, so Hillary is done, toast! All the planing was for nothing and Hillary lost. But, stop treating her like she’s a cancer on the party, the Cliontons have done more to pull this party together than anyone since FDR, or his ghost! Bill was the first democratic president to be re-elecyed since FDR and Hillary was arguably the smartest and hardest working First lady ever. The Clintons reworked this party and regained the ground lost to Reagan. And, Bill paid off the national debt and left a surplus behind. So, these are good and competent people and if Obama accomplishes half of what they did, he be a great president. So, give Bill and Hillary their props. Sit back, cheer when they speak. They are the democrats who made it possible for guys like Obama to win. They’ll move on, they know they’re not wanted anymore, but they are not trash to be tossed to the curb. Remember, before there was an Obama, we loved the Clintons. And, deep down, most of us still do.