Oh, and on Tuesday, a black man was presumptively nominated to be President of the United States.
As a news item, I realize it pales it comparison to uncovering the answer to that timeless question, "What does Hillary want?" Judging by the media coverage, you'd think most of the eighteen million who voted for Hillary, as well as a good chunk of Obama's eighteen million supporters, were cashing in sick days and vacation time to stay home and monitor the minute-by-minute vicissitudes of Hillary's future prospects.
Who gives a rat's hindquarters?
She's no longer the story and the sooner the media acknowledges that, the better off we'll all be. There's a concept known as Q quotient. It's the attractiveness, and therefore marketability, of a celebrity. Well, just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, when Obama surpassed the 2,118 mark in total delegates, Hillary's political Q quotient dropped by about fifty percent. She's still on the A list but, let's be honest, the gap between nominee and runner-up is the distance between Mozart and Salieri.
The Democratic Party is now Obama's Party. He unleashed a blitzkrieg when he announced his candidacy for president on February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. In less than than sixteen months, he went from being a freshman Midwestern senator to the undisputed face of his party. We had grown so accustomed to the Clinton brand since 1992 that the abrupt shift in power seems all the more seismic. Less than a year and a half ago it was unthinkable that Hillary would be on the vice-presidential short list and that Bill would have been reduced to albatross status.
But Barack Obama, the Zen Master Assassin from Chicago's South Side, by way of Jakarta, Indonesia and Honolulu, Hawaii, wrested the party from their grasp in front of our eyes. It was like watching a ninja pluck the still-beating heart from his enemy's chest. He moved quickly today to follow up on his primary victory, installing his strategist Paul Tewes at the DNC to oversee fundraising. The DNC announced it will no longer be accepting contributions from federal lobbyists or political action committees, bringing it in line with the Obama campaign's policies.
It's hard to see Obama tapping Clinton for his VP. While it's impossible to predict definitively her net value or drag on the ticket, Obama can make a strong argument that he doesn't need her.
She has substantially higher negatives than any other candidate, thereby assuring a more motivated opposition from both the Republican base as well as Clinton haters in both parties.
While roughly a quarter of Clinton's supporters claim they will vote for McCain in the general election, past evidence suggests this may be a heat-of-the-moment threat. Since 1992, less than 10% of Democrats and Republicans have crossed party lines when voting for president. How many women will actually vote to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade in November because they feel somehow cheated or disrespected by the Obama campaign is very much open for debate. (Appalachia, not so much. Obama might have to write off that vote although it wouldn't hurt him in some of the swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania to venture into a few hollers to say howdy. Although, when over twenty percent of voters in Kentucky's primary admit that race was a factor in their decision, even the Scranton Scrapper herself riding shotgun isn't going to bring in the hillbilly vote.)
In addition, the Clinton Circus travels complete with its own baggage car. Does Obama really want to deal with that drama for the entirety of his presidency? How comfortable is he going to be that the Clinton's aren't pursuing their own agendas in the backrooms of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom that they already know so well?
Speaking of Clintons, plural, Bill might be a Veep deal-breaker all by himself. Would he be able to pass the inevitable vetting process, what with his undisclosed list of donors and his murky business dealings around the world since he left office? Would he even want to risk the humiliation? And, if he did come through the process cleanly, of what value are assurances from the Clintons that he would remain in New York, concentrating on his foundation and piling up frequent flier miles on Air Burkle? Does anyone really believe that the Big Dawg could actually be kept on a short leash for the next eight years?
Most importantly, Obama needs to enter the battle with McCain from a position of strength. He's already saddled with the classic Democrat mantle of "soft on defense," exacerbated by his perceived eagerness to negotiate with anyone who owns a table and two chairs. Plus, he's Harvard-bred, he dines on salmon and broccoli, he prefers tea to beer and he bowls the way most voters play polo. The last impression he needs to give is that Hillary dangled her support as so much political capital and managed to strong-arm her way onto the ticket against his effete, elitist will.
Besides, after watching McCain's performance on Tuesday (Gail Collins of the New York Times captured it perfectly), it's difficult to imagine Obama losing -- I don't care if he picks Mike Gravel. The contrast between the two candidates could not have been starker. McCain would be the oldest candidate ever elected president. His message is incoherent. He supports the Iraq War, in direct opposition to somewhere between half and three-quarters of the American people. He's selling Iran as America's most dangerous enemy, the same Iran that has inarguably been the largest beneficiary of the very same Iraq War he defends. He supports Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy although, to be fair, he admits that he doesn't understand economics. And he's pushing lobbyists out the back of the Straight Talk Express like ballast off of the Titanic.
Hillary, besides being yesterday's news, is the least of Obama's worries. I think his biggest obstacle is going to be overconfidence.
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