Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Hillary!-O!bama

Will the dreaded H-O ticket come to fruition? Rudy said yes. Now, Ross Kaminsky at Human Events says no.

In short, his reasoning is that:

1. Hill's ego is too big to take the media fawning over Obama
2. Obama has no reason to take the Veep slot, he's already got the cash and name recognition to run for President next cycle.
3. Obama's lack of experience makes him an undesirable Veep candidate, a heartbeat away from the W.H.
4. Obama doesn't help bring in any new demographics or states for Hillary (who is originally from IL herself).

3 comments:

SheaHeyKid said...

Actually, I disagree with all of Kaminsky's points except a variation of #1. I think the largest reason Hill and Obama will probably not link up is b/c both of them have probably grown to hate each other during the course of this campaign. I realize that both of them (especially Hill) are possibly such political creatures that emotions never enter such considerations; they come about more from cold calculations. But I still think the pairing is unlikely.

With respect to points 2-4, let's start with 2. Both Obama and Hillary have to be realistic here: if either one of them wins presidency in '08, barring some hideous misfortune in the next 4 years they are almost a 5-star lock pick of the week for re-election in '12 (assuming a repub doesn't unseat them). I just don't see the Democratic party turning away from either one of these candidates in 2012 if they win in '08. Why would they? So the loser has to face the prospect of not being nominee until 2016, at which point country probably swings back to Repubs if it isn't already. This might be an acceptable delay to Obama since he's young, but I'm not sure he wants to wait that long.

On point 3, I don't think people give this much consideration when voting for prez/VP combo. I think a strong VP can help your cause, but a lack of experience in VP is unlikely to hurt at all.

On point 4, I'm not sure about states but I do think he could help with demographics. He seems to have more of the black vote locked up than Hillary, and furthermore he's one of the few candidates who can say he was against Iraq war from day 1 and voted against it. This might help Hill get far left to better embrace her, since they are rabidly against the war.

At the end of the day Dem party has to figure that a 1-2 punch of Hill-Obama is their best chance to re-take the white house. The question is, will the behind-the-scenes wrestling be strong enough to convince the candidates themselves that this is the way to go?

SheaHeyKid said...

And if so, who is the Republicans best 1-2 counter punch? All of the republicans are getting trounced in head-to-head against Dems, but those polls now are meaningless. I think mitt-huckabee or mitt-hunter might be best 1-2. Once republican party picks a candidate and rallies all their support behind him, I think you'll see a dramatic improvement in our head-to-head #s against Dems in general election polling, regardless of who is picked.

Fredo said...

On Point 3, see Quayle, Dan.

On point 4, I tend to think people overestimate the pull a veep has over a state, so I'm with you there. In terms of demographics, could it help? Yeah. Sure. I guess. But Hill really doesn't have to worry about the far left anti-war vote right now. As McAuliffe apparently said a few days ago, she's got the Dem nomination "in the bag."

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Always sniffing for the truth

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