George Will writes today:
That this idea [of an Obama-Clinton ticket] survived her off-putting speech Tuesday night, after Obama won the right to choose a running mate, is evidence that many Democrats do not fathom the gratitude that less-blinkered Americans feel for Obama because he has closed the Clinton parenthesis in our presidential history.
(Emphasis supplied.) It is funny to hear a bow-tie wearing, fuddy duddy elitest lecture on what "less-blinkered" Americans want. The only people George Will talks to live in Georgetown. What George Will is saying is that his Washington cocktail party friends are grateful. Uh George, we knew that already. Here's the problem for you - most of the American People have disagreed with the Beltway Media about the Clintons for almost two decades. It was these same "less-blnkered" Beltway bloviators who were thankful George W. Bush beat the "blowhard" Al Gore in 2000. 8 years later, the blinkers are off. Some of the less astute people in the world are in George Will's circle. Maybe he needs to go to an Applebee's once in a while.
But there is Obama's dilemma. Some day in July, Barack Obama will announce his Vice Presidential choice. And the story will be Hillary Clinton. Whether she is chosen or not. If she is not, Obama will be showered with "gratitude . . . because he has closed the Clinton parenthesis in our presidential history." And for a week, there will be stories dancing on the graves on Bill and Hillary Clinton. Obama will be answering questions about Hillary Clinton, NOT Kathleen Sebelius or Jim Webb or whomever. And he will anger a good deal of the Democratic Party - what I call the Clinton Democrats. And then there will be a week of questions about THAT.
If he chooses Clinton, the Media will be enraged. But here's the real question - will they be able to run stories about how weak about Obama is because he did not listen to them or will he be hailed as showing maturity and being the "unifier" he claims to be?
It will be interesting to see the run up to the choice to see how the Obama campaign positions itself in the following weeks on this. So far, they have played it well. Obama has "taken control of the process" without disrespecting Senator Clinton. But there are weeks to go.
And at the end of these weeks, the dilemma will remain.
See also Anglachel.
By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only
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