Okay, so unless you’ve been living in a cave (assuming the cave is not wired for cable, like mine is), you know that Hillary has been floating around the idea of a “dream ticket” with Hillary on top and Obama in the VP slot.
Hillary knows what she’s doing. The math is against her, and the stalemate between her and Obama shows no sign of ending anytime soon. So she needs to woo the “superdelegates” at the convention, and one big way of doing that is by floating the “dream ticket” idea past them.
Now, as you can see above, Obama has already started trying to shake this idea, but he needs to do much more. He needs to reject the potential VP spot right now. As forcefully as possible. Because if a Clinton-Obama ticket emerges, I am telling you right now, Obama’s supporters are going to be disgusted.
Obama should be out there stumping saying, look, I have more delegates, I have the popular vote, and Hillary Clinton is trying to steal this election. I really believe he needs to start saying things like that, because this is exactly what Hillary Clinton is trying to do — enter in a brokered convention and woo the “superdelegates” with the dream-team idea, marginalizing Obama in the process.
If Obama accepts a VP spot under Clinton, there is going to be shock and horror among a lot of his supporters, and I’m telling you right now — the “Uncle Tom” issue will be dragged out in the light, valid or not, salient or not.
So Obama needs to kill this right now. Hammer away with, “I am running for president, I’m not running for vice president — and I am winning. And Hillary Clinton wants to steal this nomination from us.”
Because that is exactly what Hillary wants to do. And Obama has to stop the momentum this issue is getting and get rid of the 2-for-1 deal. If I were on his staff, I would be advising him right now to get out there and say that he would never, under any circumstances, allow himself to a VP option for Hillary Clinton — especially since he’s winning.
Obama needs to take care of this forcefully and he needs to take care of it now, because the “dream team” ticket issue is already generating a lot of buzz. Obama needs to stop that dead and remind people that not only is he running for *president* and not *vice-president*, but also this a blatant attempt on Hillary’s part to thwart the will of Democratic primary voters.
And yes, before you ask, I like Obama. As a person. Politically, he’s extremely liberal, so I’d certainly have problems with him as president, but I’ll tell you one thing — it’d be easier on the ears to listen to Obama for 4-8 years than to listen to Hillary for 4-8 years.
Hillary and Obama should just ask McCain to be veep and forego the upcoming meaningless general election. He’s entertained the Dem veep offer before, so why not now, and save the taxpayers some bucks? Now there’s a “dream ticket”!
It doesn’t matter which lib ends up in charge… we’re already screwed.
I wouldn’t count out McCain’s candidacy quite so fast here. Almost all polls currently show McCain beating Hillary and/or Obama. That means nothing at this stage of the game, but McCain has got a shot. And a lot of it has to do with his high level (for a politician) of honesty. He hasn’t ducked things; he said, hey, I came out against the Bush tax cuts, but guess what? They worked, so I want to make them permanent. He has never flipped on the pro-life issue. I hate to bring up the cliche about him, but he really is a “straight-shooter”. Unfortunately he straight-shoots the wrong way sometimes…but he’s still infinitely preferable to either Dem. choice.
Besides, whoever wins, we’re not screwed. A president doesn’t have *that* much impact. The biggest thing coming up are the SC nominations. I’d much rather hold the SC than hold the White House, but to hold the SC, we *have* to hold the White House…
Anyway, it’s REALLY, *way* too early to say anything about anything quite yet, except the looming Dem showdown.
By “which lib is in charge” I meant of the three. It won’t make much difference in the end. The only time McCain is “shooting straight” is when he’s aiming at the back of conservatives. Please explain what evidence you have that McCain would nonimate a decent SC judge. Was it his vote against Robert Bork? Or his vote for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg? Or his assertion that Sam Alito was too conservative? Inquiring minds want to know!
You northeastern liberals are silly!
Listen, the bottom line is this. Conservatives didn’t have a horse in this race. Period. So we ended up with McCain. Well, that’s one bottom line. The other is that WHATEVER havoc McCain wreaks in office through nominations, it cannot possibly be worse than the damage either HRC or Obama will do. That’s it. What am I being silly about? You think HRC or Obama in the White House is better than a McCain presidency? You gotta be kidding me.
“You think HRC or Obama in the White House is better than a McCain presidency?”
Absolutely! Just like Carter beating Ford made way for the Reagan revolution. It’s fairly easy to make the case that the Ford loss was better for the USA (and the world) in the end. Since I think Ford would have been a better president than McCain, logic points to a clear conclusion.
Back on topic, since it was your “biggest thing”, I’m still waiting for evidence – any evidence – that McCain will nominate acceptable SC judges. There is a lot of evidence to the contrary.
You are northeastern, and you endorse a liberal, but my “silly” comment was ad-hominem and uncalled for, sorry.
If you honestly believe Hillary or Obama somehow “serve us” better than McCain, by all means, vote for Hillary or Obama.
After all, if it’s this obvious that Obama and Hillary are the way conservatives should go, you shouldn’t need to shout about it on a small blog.
Just vote that way.
Yes, we Northeasterners, the people the terrorists attacked last time, remember us? Want me to put on a little hat and sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy”?
That’s it. If you’re for Obama or Hillary, please vote for them, and please make sure any friends you have likely to be as stupid as you also vote for Obama or Clinton (maybe you’ll be really lucky and get both on the same ticket)! Posolutely.
I don’t vote for liberals. Frankly I can’t see how anyone could vote for Hillary, Obama, or McCain. Yeah, yeah, here comes the “not voting for McCain is a vote for the Democrat!” lesser of two evils garbage. B.S. For everyone there is a line one will not cross, and for me (and a lot of conservatives), McCain is beyond that line… far beyond. For you, obviously he is not.
Another question which, like the previous, will probably go unanswered, but what the heck:
When was the last time a Republican won a Presidential election without support from the conservative base?
75% of Republicans are now locked into McCain, and that includes the base. Look, man, I’m not debating with you whether or not we don’t have a “true” conservative in the race. We don’t. Huckabee was a big-government populist who, though he ran as the “real” conservative, has governed as a liberal. Romney — liberal as well.
Which is why I don’t think either of them would help McCain as a VP.
As for the last time a Republican won without the support of the base…no, I can’t name one. However, I happen to think the base is coalescing around John McCain.
Look, I’m no happier than when Bob Dole was nominated in 1996. But what you have to understand about my vote, in particular, is that it’s going to person I think won’t blink on terrorism. Of the three candidates, who is the only one who has promised not to pull out of Iraq?
McCain has a lifetime ACU voting rating of 80; Hillary and Obama, in contrast, have lifetime records of 9 and 8, respectively.
No, McCain is not your dream conservative. Then again, Reagan wasn’t either, if you look at his record and *cough* a couple of SC nominations he made that were terrible.
McCain will do a good job on national defense, he’ll keep pressure on Iraq, he will not cut and run from either Iraq or Afghanistan, and he will hold the line on Iran.
I think it’s absurdly selfish of you to think you’re going to help the country by electing someone thoroughly liberal, who would remove troops from hotspots across the globe, most likely leading to mass genocide in areas, who would try to push through socialized medicine, who would…do everything a liberal would do…simply to somehow prove a point to your own party.
If you’re willing to do that, you’re not the kind of person I’d like to consider part of the base. Conservatism was blessed with WFB, Jr., whose major accomplishment was to purge the conservative wing of the party of kooks such as yourself.
I consider myself a member of the base. I have never voted for a Democrat in any election. I donated to Bush three times (the extra time, the third, comes from donating to GELAC after the Florida debacle in 2000). I fully support Bush and consider him a good president except for his inability to veto bills laden with pork and the subsequent amount of totally useless spending that has gone on.
What I’m trying to say here is that, although you seem to think voting Democrat is the way to go — to somehow “punish” the last best hope of the world by electing a candidate you hope will be so terrible that in four years, after that candidate has been elected and has caused what is most likely irreparable damage in our efforts to combat terrorism — is simply so far out there that no lifelong conservative is going to buy it.
The base will coalesce. It already *is* coalescing; look at the polls. As McCain moves into the general and rags such as the NY Times suddenly turn on a man who was once a media darling for his “maverick” (yes, code for “liberal”) moves is going to be painted as Bush reincarnated.
There are huge differences between McCain and the the two Democratic hopefuls. If you can’t see them, and you’re so angry about things that you want to take your toys and go play somewhere else, so be it. I’m not trying to change your mind, as I said before. Vote Hillary. Vote Obama. I don’t care, because anyone who would vote for either of those two candidates to *punish* America, to punish the world’s beacon of freedom — is, in my opinion, mean-spirited, knee-jerk, and unable to read through McCain’s conservative voting record; you seem to take the fact that he’s “liberal” for granted.
Seriously, vote for Obama or Clinton. Why should *I* care? You’re not part of the base I want in the 21st century Republican party.
You are petty and small to want to punish the last best hope of the world simply because you didn’t get the exact candidate you wanted. That being said, go ahead and make your statement vote. Again, why should I care?