If Hillary Tries to Push her Way on the Ticket, Obama Should

Since I still have the Pollster window open from another thread:

CA:

Obama 50.7
McCain 41.8

NY:

Obama 50.2
McCain 38.8

And this is probably a low point for Obama. McCain's been free to campaign against Obama for a while now, while Obama's had to fend off both McCain and Hillary and is not the nominee yet.

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Pretty damn creepy to be factoring assasination into one's plans.

IMO, The overwhelming majority of Democrats are going to vote for Obama whether Hillary is on the ticket or not. The same can't be said for Independents and they are the people that will decide the final outcome of the November election. I think Obama would benefit from telling Hillary to take a hike with that voting segment.

There are very few drawbacks for him to NOT have her on the ticket and the gains easily outweigh any possible advantages.

Of course he would be, but does anyone still really believe that he is an agent of so-called New Politics? If they do it's because their desires have trumped their reason.

I keep wondering why Hillary would want to be VP.

Wouldn't it just frost her ass if something happened to Obama and Bill Richardson became president?

Pretty damn creepy to be factoring assasination into one's plans.

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Nonsense, of course, as Soz already pointed out. But dont let facts get in yer way...

IMO, The overwhelming majority of Democrats are going to vote for Obama whether Hillary is on the ticket or not. The same can't be said for Independents and they are the people that will decide the final outcome of the November election. I think Obama would benefit from telling Hillary to take a hike with that voting segment.

There are very few drawbacks for him to NOT have her on the ticket and the gains easily outweigh any possible advantages.

Buy a bullet proof vest.

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Got a cite for that, Finn?

Nimh was on the job here back then too, and this post from Nov 2nd 2004 shows a bunch of polls -- nowhere near a 20 point lead for Kerry in any of them (Bush leads in some, Kerry in others, all close):

http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=991716#991716

Again, I expect things will only get better for Obama from here -- some fluctuations, of course, but a big bump when he's actually the nominee (Kerry became the nominee way earlier) and additional improvements when, a) he can focus on just McCain instead of the double-barreled attack from McCain and Hillary, and b) when the media can focus more on McCain. Guy's been getting an incredible pass so far, by and large.

There may of course be big news of some kind that shifts things in one direction or another -- bad news for Obama, bad news for McCain. But just within usual parameters, I expect Obama to improve his numbers from where they are now.

nimh wrote:

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Nonsense, of course, as Soz already pointed out. But dont let facts get in yer way...

14, I recall. But not before the GE. In March.

Roxxxanne wrote:

nimh wrote:

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Before the general election in 2004, the polls showed Kerry beating Bush by 20 percentage points.

Nonsense, of course, as Soz already pointed out. But dont let facts get in yer way...

14, I recall. But not before the GE. In March.

Nope, not back then either.

There was one single CNN/Gallup poll in February 2004 that had Kerry up by 12%, but even that was a rather extreme outlier. In no single 10 days of polling throughout 2004 did the average Kerry lead in the polls ever top 5%.

According to Chuck Todd, Kerry had a 14 point lead in March of 2004. And Chck Todd can't be wrong as he is one of my Myspace friends.

The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said "no." Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on his own criteria and vetting process.

And that is all that anybody needs to know to understand the childish and wounded behavior of Senator Clinton yesterday, grandstanding hypocritically to senior citizens in Florida, telling them they should consider themselves under sniper fire in Bosnia, er, Zimbabwe, aggrandizing herself as some kind of civil rights leader (MLK? or LBJ? She didn't say this time) and attempting to corner 30 members of the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee that will meet on May 31 to resolve the disputes over whether, and, if so, how, delegates from Michigan and Florida might be seated at the convention in August.

While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, friends of the couple say that former President Bill Clinton, for one, has begun privately contemplating a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama's running mate.

"If she's not going to be the nominee, then he wants her in the second spot," said one friend of the Clintons. "In the long run, it's the best way for her to run again in 2016."

Time magazine first reported Mr. Clinton's interest in the No. 2 slot for Mrs. Clinton on Thursday.

"I can tell you this. My goal is to have the best possible government. And that means me winning. So, I'm very practical in my thinking. I'm a practical guy. One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln. Awhile back, there was a wonderful book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin called 'Team of Rivals,' in which she talked about how Lincoln basically pulled all the people he'd been running against into his Cabinet. Because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was, 'How can we get the country through this time of crisis?' I think that has to be the approach one takes to the vice president and the Cabinet."

Clinton Campaign in Talks With Obama About VP Slot, CNN Says

By Chris Dolmetsch


May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is in formal talks with Senator Barack Obama's campaign about becoming his vice presidential running mate, CNN reported, without citing anyone specific.

The two Democratic campaigns are talking about ways for Clinton, from New York, to drop her bid for president that may include joining the Illinois senator's ticket, CNN reported. Talks are in a ``very preliminary'' stage and are described as ``difficult,'' the network said.