Against Obama-Clinton '08
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Against Unity
09 May 2008
Matt Yglesias is against a Clinton/Obama ticket.
Team of Rivals
4 May 2008
Andrew Sullivan says a unity ticket could undermine Obama's message.
The ultimate gesture
March 2008
After the Texas and Ohio primaries, Marc Ambinder explored the virtues of an Obama/Clinton ticket.
In an effort to halt intra-Democratic partisan bloodletting, some, including The Atlantic's own Andrew Sullivan, have suggested that Barack Obama run for president with Hillary Clinton as his running mate. And it seems that some in the Obama camp are taking the idea seriously, so seriously that senior Obama advisors are reportedly weighing whether or not to take on Clinton's campaign debt -- including, amusingly enough, Clinton's campaign debt to herself. Note that Clinton has consistently argued that Obama is not ready for the rigors of the presidency, and not ready to take on America's rivals on the world stage. He is too green, he is too trusting. If Obama does indeed acquiesce to the Clintonites' desperate pleas for some kind of face-saving gesture, he will prove Clinton right.
When Ronald Reagan selected George Bush as his running mate in 1980, he chose someone who had harshly criticized him on the campaign trail. But Bush never came close to making the kind of racially-tinged and lacerating attacks against Reagan that have become Clinton's stock in trade in her race against Obama. The idea that Obama's army of small donors would actually compensate the fabulously rich Clintons for launching such aggressive, hateful attacks is more galling still. Magnanimity is one thing. Spinelessness is another. Yes, there will be a place for Clinton loyalists in any Democratic administration, even the most craven Clinton loyalists. But surely there has to be some limit.
Barack Obama's appeal lies in his promise to move beyond the divisive politics of the past. Though this often appears to be an anodyne and content-free sentiment, one hopes there is at least something to it. A backroom deal with Clinton would make a mockery of Obama's language of hope and change. It would make Obama appear weak, and it would reward Clinton for running a campaign more vicious than anything Lee Atwater could have cooked up. More importantly, Obama would be choosing a fundamentally weak and unpopular running mate who has masked her marked executive inexperience through endless misrepresentation of her role in the Clinton White House -- a role that begins and ends with a healthcare debacle that would have gotten anyone other than a First Lady fired.
If Obama really does select Clinton as his running mate, he will have demonstrated that he doesn't have the capacity for judgment we expect from a president.
They'd work poorly togetherMichael Tomasky argues that Hillary Clinton "would demand, because of her stature, some kind of major portfolio. Her track record with major portfolios is other than encouraging." |
Why do it?Mark Schmitt finds that "the unity ticket, while not necessarily a bad idea, is fundamentally unnecessary." |
She's pushing itAndrew Malcolm traces unity ticket talk back to the Clinton campaign. |
Good for her, bad for DemsJames Poulos argues that "choosing Hillary to be Obama's vice-president would hurt the Democratic party." |


