Obama, Clinton, And The Fly On The Wall

[highplainsdem]

http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=520580

By Joe Rothstein, Editor
USPoliticstoday.com

(It was June 5, just after the last Democratic primaries confirmed Barack Obama's narrow presidential nomination victory over Hillary Clinton. Both candidates slipped away from their retinues and met privately at the Washington home of Senator Diane Feinstein. In my imagination, I was a fly on the wall at that meeting. Just the three of us: Clinton, Obama, and me soundlessly perched on a nearby wall. Here's what I “witnessed.”)

Obama: Hillary...Thanks for coming to see me like this on such short notice. But before we say a word, how about a hug?
Clinton: You probably need one as badly as I do.
(Big bear hug. The tension of the past months needs to be squeezed out. It shows in both of them. But both seem exhilarated by the experience ).
Obama: No sense being coy about this. You know that for the rest of this year, and probably beyond, you and I are joined at the hip, don't you?
Clinton: Obviously. If I had won the nomination there's no way I could have avoided putting you on the ticket. Now you're stuck with me.
Obama: I really have no other choice. But let me tell you, during the toughest days of the last few weeks I really warmed up to the idea.

-snip-

Obama As I say, you're the kind of pro I learned to love in Chicago politics. And I keep forgetting, you got your start in Illinois, didn't you?
Clinton: We're not so different, are we? We'll get along just fine together in the White House. So, how do you want to handle the announcement of an Obama-Clinton ticket?
Obama: Well, the first thing we do is cool it. Let passions die over the summer. We'll make it seem that you're no longer being considered. Then we'll schedule you for a prime time TV speech at the convention that simply blows people away---the way mine did four years ago. That starts a groundswell for you, and it's almost as if you're chosen by acclamation. I won't resist.
Clinton: I like it. If your people, or the Hillary-haters got wind of this too early they'd build a wall of opposition. Might even make it impossible for you to put me on the ticket. You'd make a lot of your own people mad.
Obama: Oh, a lot of my own people will be mad no matter how we do this. But the focus is on winning in November, not keeping everyone happy. I need you to win. That's the political reality.
Clinton: I agree. And if you don't win, it won't be my fault. I'll live to try this again four years from now.
Obama Yes. And I won't get in your way then.
Clinton So between now and the convention I'll just keep a low profile, stay out of trouble, and prep for a convention speech so electrifying it will pop the balloons before they drop.
Obama: That's it, my friend. And between now and then you'll be reading a lot of stuff about how I'd never dream of putting you on our “dream ticket.” Don't believe a word of it.

-snip-

The rest is at the link.

This page has a bio of Rothstein, who's been a political strategist as well as an editor.

http://www.ipdgroup.com/bios.php

[scheming daemons]

1. Meh. Wanna bet?

[highplainsdem]

2. We'll see. No other possible running mate could help him as much.

[Lucky 13]

5. No other possible running mate could HURT him as much either.

[scheming daemons]

6. I guarantee you that they are secretly hoping over at McCain headquarters that Obama picks her....

[Metric System]

8. You know, UNITY is a two-way street. NO, Obama does not have to pick Hillary. However, you don't

have to be so damn dismissive of the possibility of her being picked. I've seen Hillary labeled as Rethug-lite, yet some of the VP contenders that have been floated around include Hagel, Nunn, Kaine and Bayh. I'd personally take Hillary over any of them, thanks, and she's far from the worst choice.

[scheming daemons]

10. Her ideology is not a problem... I don't consider her Rethug-lite....

..

The problems are:

A) Her husband
B) Her statements about Obama during the primaries that cannot be undone and would be major fodder for McCain in the general if Obama picked her.


She disqualified herself the day she said that McCain has the necessary experience for CiC and that Obama does not.


I understand that she was campaigning and that's how campaigns work. But there's consequences as well.


She made her bed with respect to the VP slot.


And the Big Dawg isn't helping any.

[Metric System]

11. She said it was up to Obama to make his own case re: CIC. She never explicitly said he didn't have

the necessary experience.

[scheming daemons]

12. "All he has is a speech"

[highplainsdem]

9. I guarantee you she's the last Dem the McCain camp would want to see as Obama's running mate.

I ran across this via Google News a few days ago, and didn't post it then since it's a blog on a RW site, but it does help answer your comment:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2008/08/02/vp-hardball-says-hillarys-history-what-if

Consider on the other hand if at the convention Obama sprung the surprise announcement that Hillary would be the VP. Massive thunderbolt. Wall to wall coverage. McCain's message wiped from the radar screen for a week. Dem party revved to the max. Fundraising through the roof. Feminists enthralled. And putting the shoe on the other foot, if you're a McCain backer, aren't you hoping he takes a Tim Kaine? Wouldn't a Hillary nomination send a shiver of anxiety?

Think about it, and keep an eye on the polls . . .

[CakeGrrl]

3. That's the fun thing about the imagination...it makes reality disappear

And so much for the 'low profile'. Bill just went out there this week and threw the MSM a little more red meat to chew. He either knows his wife isn't really in the running or he's trying to make sure she isn't.

[Whisp]

4. *swat!*

no way.
:P

[ronnykmarshall]

7. That was really good.

Not as good as my Hillary and Barack at Dianne's place story. But it was good.

[TheBigotBasher]

13. I liked Hillary

but her campaign undermined her totally. Her reputation as a Democrat, her reputation for campaigning for the poor, the Clinton reputation for helping African Americans were all destroyed in an attempt to win when she had no chance of doing so. Then she went beyond reprehensible when she all but encouraged assassination and to back it up issued a leaflet with Obama and a sniper gun. If this was ANYONE else they would have been EXPELLED. For Hillary, we are required to offer forgiveness. If the kind of supporters she has now encouraged cause a loss in November then there is no forgiveness.

[ronnykmarshall]

14. Oh really?

Wow! Nice blanket statement towards her supporters.

[JoFerret]

15. Amazing how the deadenders

just can't stop. It's like they miss having a reason to abuse Hillary that they just can't stop.


So divisive.

[TheBigotBasher]

16. No it is not her

or her supporters in general but the PUMA types who will do anything to destroy the party. They must be tackled as they are the swiftboaters of 2008. Hillary no longer recognises them, they are scum, but they are a salutory lesson of what happens when you play to the lowest possible base.

[JoFerret]

17. A little understanding goes a long way

A soft answer turneth away wrath.


And all those other good cliches.

I suggest keeping out of their way.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Softly, softly.... (Remember the TV series?)

[TheBigotBasher]

19. A soft answer to this lot is

never the answer.

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/06/join-howard-deans-rally-in-pittsburgh-let-your-voice-be-heard-at-the-all-important-platform-meeting-this-weekend/#more-4038

Soft answers to the swiftboat mob cost us the last election. All I can say to Hillary supporters is I forgive the dirtiness of the campaign, I understand the pain of losing an election, I have won and lost in many, but PUMA is nothing but a McSame front.

[JoFerret]

22. Eating your own

is narcissism writ large.

There is a difference between this and swiftboatism.

[ronnykmarshall]

21. ....

[AllentownJake]

18. His choice

If I were Hillary though I'd rather stay in the Senate.

[Zhade]

20. Wishful thinking. It's very unlikely Obama's going to put her on his ticket.

1) He doesn't need her. Polls show a majority of registered voters *don't* want her on the ticket.

2) He'd be handing mcLame ammo -- the Tuzla video (easily proves clinton's an opportunistic liar), records of her very pro-NAFTA meetings (poison in this economy) and her endorsement of mcLame's "experience" over Obama ("he has a speech" - now appearing in mcLame campaign ads).

I don't think Obama is going to make the strategic mistake of picking someone with higher negatives than positives who would undercut the nomination he won fair and square.