« Hillary Ally Says She Authorized Him To Launch Campaign To Make Her Veep | Home | The Final Math »
Pelosi Says The Dem Primary Is Over, Declares Obama The "Nominee"
Nancy Pelosi has just said that the Democratic Primary is over, declaring Barack Obama the "nominee."
Pelosi's office just sent me some audio of some remarks she made to reporters from the cable networks that haven't aired yet. "Now we have a nominee," Pelosi said, "and that's pretty exciting."
Here's her full quote:
It's pretty exciting, a great expansion of participation from young people, from women, from minorities, people in minority communities. And now we have a nominee, and that's pretty exciting. The campaign of Sen. Clinton is one that will go down in the history books as a great one for our country, breaking what I call the marble ceiling, what they call the glass ceiling. Glass is easy compared to the ceiling that she broke. And I couldn't be prouder of her eloquence, her knowledge, her judgment, the stamina that it took to have this campaign. And so I salute her and all of her supporters.
As clear as can be -- Pelosi crowned Obama the nominee, and talked about Hillary's candidacy as being "history." More party leaders are likely to follow suit today.
Advertisement















Total class. Pelosi rocks!
June 4, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent - good on ya, Nancy!!! Now that's a woman I've always been able to get behind! :D
June 4, 2008 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pelosi... talked about Hillary's candidacy as being "history."
Er, that's a rather uncharitable interpretation of Pelosi's remarks. I respectfully suggest that you change that wording, Greg, lest it reflect poorly on you as a reporter.
June 4, 2008 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Making "history" is not a negative statement, unless you want it to be.
June 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Making "history" is not negative. Being "history", on the other hand, does carry a negative connotation.
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Completely agree. Greg used the word "history" inappropriately ad inaccurately relative to the context of Pelosi's remarks. A more appropriate interpretation would have been "historic."
This is sloppy and well beneath the editorial standard of TPM.
Next time skip the cutsey headline...
-- MDT
June 4, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nicely done.
June 4, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!
June 4, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bah, whatever. PELOSI broke a glass ceiling with what she did. Hillary was thrown through a glass ceiling by her former president husband. I hate to say it but it is true, she did nothing remarkable on her own. I'm only glad she didn't make it, or else the history first woman president, or first woman major party nominee, would have been the one who road her husbands coattails the whole way there. It would have been a sad day for feminism.
I think Pelosi would be a much better choice for first.
Pelosi '16!
June 4, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
She'll never run for president. She already has the most powerful job in our government now and Pelosi shattered the marble ceiling in 2006 already. Pelosi is awesome.
June 4, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, her leadership in stopping the Iraq occupation last year was nothing less than sensational.
June 4, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
She tried, but she was blocked by the senate and the king. It was not her fault that the dems didn't have the votes. And, I know that she could have cut off funding, but in reality that would have been political suicide for the dems.
June 4, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. And their patience was just rewarded big-time. The grass-roots wave will not be stopped, and it's the only legitimate route for cleansing our govt.
Only when the People demand it will it happen. That may be written down somewhere, maybe even codified...
June 4, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
If she had done her Constitutional duty, she'd already be President.
I'm just saying.
June 4, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just think if Obama picks Richardson as his VP, and they win in November. Then the line of succession to the presidency will be first an Hispanic man, and after that a woman from San Francisco. The knuckle-draggers of Fox will be agog for years to come, even if they can get their heads around a Harvard-educated African-American as president.
June 4, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
WORD UP!!!!! ;)
June 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in Pelosi's, Boxer's and Feinstein's district.
She's overstepped. Being in a leadership position in the House gives her reason to be more circumspect in how she behaves publicly. This was premature and a poke in the eye to Clinton supporters. She should be ashamed.
One more reason I urge all 18 million Clinton supporters to sit out the election.
Democratic Conscientious Objectors unite!
June 4, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
you're cute.
June 4, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
although it's true that a lot of clinton supporters would be fine with a mcThuseleh presidency. you included, most obviously.
June 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
and that comfort with a POTUS mcWar among her supporters should tell you a lot about our lady of inevitibility. identical positions on iraq, iran, etc. i'm surprised she did so well in the primaries. nostalgia, i guess.
June 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
mcThusele
that's awesome
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're funny.
June 4, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think she's been plenty patient with Clinton, so STFU!!!
Again, go for it, fogu2 - I forbid you from voting for Obama in November. You and the other 300 Hillaryis44 harpies can go lick your wounds and vote for McCain, or Bob Barr, or Ralph Nader, or write Clinton in.
June 4, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it's horrible how Pelosi insulted everybody by throwing her weight behind the candidate who won the popular vote, the pledged delegates, and the superdelegates. And to do this while superdelegates are still busy retracting their endorsements of Hillary!
Come on. Grow up. Vote the issues, not your anger. It's not about you, it's about our country.
June 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know! How DARE she side with the winner by every conceivable measure??!
Why is Pelosi such a raging misogynist?
Ferraro? Your take? :P
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that a joke? I can't tell, because it is ridiculous, but the reality of Hillary's hardcore supporters is nothing short of ridiculous, so it is REALLY hard to tell where reality ends and over the top parody begins.
Having said that, she didn't overstep anything, the nomination is finalized, it is a mathematic certainty, and she waiting until after that point to declare a winner. This wasn't disrespectful to ANYONE. Her job is to unite the Party, and that is what she is doing.
And Hillary doesn't speak for her 18 million supporters, they are not mindless bargaining chips, they are Democrats, and contrary to what she would like to believe, they aren't cutting themselves right now out of anguish, they aren't worshiping Hillary looking for answers, they are jumping behind Obama, getting tired up and ready to go, and are going to happily support the Democrats in November. Only a few pathetic fanatics will actually sit this election out of vote for McCain, and oh well, I pity them for their pettiness, but I won't lose any sleep over them, because obviously they weren't really Democrats in the first place, just mindless automatons.
June 4, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Clinton supporters in St. Paul who cheered on Obama last night with me, side by side, would disagree.
We were a united party in Minnesota last night, I hope you can join us where ever you are!
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Deranged thing.
June 4, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fogu2 is a Republican troll.....c'mon.....sent here to create the illusion of party disunity....transparent
June 4, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
As someone over at Daily Kos asked earlier today, Are you kidding me? Are you "insane?" Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want four more years of alienation and disrespect from almost every other country on the planet?
Do you want four more years in Iraq?
Do you want four more years of out-of-control healthcare costs, with more than 40 million Americans uninsured?
Do you want four more years with the U.S. being somewhere around the 30th best country on the planet when it comes to infant mortality?
Do you want four more years of challenges to Roe v. Wade?
Do you want four more years of Republican control over our Supreme Court appointees?
Do you want four more years of a Judicial Branch that's more interested in political thuggery than real justice?
Do you want four more years of escalting global tempratures which could be irreversable?
Do you want four more years of lip service--and nothing else--for substantive federal support of alternative energy initiatives?
Do you want four more years of obscene oil industry profits?
Do you want four more years of a financial services sector devoid of regulatory enforcement?
Do you want four more years of welfare for the rich?
Do you want four more years of the rich getting richer while everybody else struggles to pay the mortgage, to pay the rent and to put food on their table (if they are even able to do that now)?
If you don't want the above, then any thinking person will not just vote for Obama, but will fight tooth-and-nail to assure that he is elected in November.
As Hillary Clinton herself said:
(emphasis mine)
What you suggest exposes you for being full of shit. What you agitate for proves you give less than a shit about any of the things Hillary Clinton claims to be a fighter for, up to and including making sure Roe v. Wade is not overturned. For you it is nothing but a vitriolic cult-of-personality fanboy/girl thing and not about positions, principles, policy, or governance.
Any Clinton supporter who claims that they are either sitting it out or voting McCain, who is the polar-opposite of what Clinton says she stands and fights for, is an utter fraud.
June 4, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
You do not understand the concept of conscientious objector.
June 4, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and you don't understand the concept of grace in defeat.
Some of us had to come to grip with the fact that our favorite candidate was out of it months ago. Can you please just grow up already?
June 4, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
35 million, give or take, voted. The issues were essentially the same. Obama will represent your needs at least as well as Clinton. If your only gripe is that he's not a woman, then you're as off base as those who object because of his ethnicity.
This absurd defiance is unbecoming and destructive. To me, only a Republican troll would make such threats, given the stakes and the last 8 years.
June 4, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
History indeed.
June 4, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Nancy! "And now we have a nominee..." I had to clap alone in front of my computer. Come on over Howie and Al and the rest.
June 4, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good for Pelosi. On occassions, she had played a very important refree role in the primary. And this statement is a sign of a leader.
Don't read too much into what you didn't hear from Hillary- I'm telling you, it's over.
Also, Kudos to Obama team for crafting the narrative brilliantly.
June 4, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's like a broadway play- "now you're on Nancy," I heard a whisper backstage.
June 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know what Hillary wants now, she wants Obama to name Kathleen Sebelius his VP.
June 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nope, they were talking about this last night according to "inside sources." One of the clintons "conditions" is that obama not name a woman as vp. In the clintons fantasy land, they believe that obama will lose in november and they don't want any competition for the woman vote in the 2012 primary. They are totally running for 2012 at this point. Pathetic.
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like a good reason TO choose a woman IMHO.
June 4, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Haha, no shit ;)
I love that Hillary pretends to be alllll about women, but when it comes down to who gets the fame of being first she will throw any other woman under the bus in a second for her glory and political ambition.
June 4, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I read yesterday that Wes Clark (sometime earlier this week) introduced Kathleen Sebelius at some rally as "the next Vice President of the U.S." - I don't remember where I read it but it is interesting since Clark is a big HRC supporter.
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
that's correct. I read the same thing.
June 4, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
The train wheels are starting to turn.
Clinton and her diehards can still hop aboard, or just stand there and wait for their own train to come by and pick them up.
June 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary and her supporters had me thinking today about "Hotel New Hampshire" and the absurd feminists in that novel. They all chose to cut out their tongues in honor of this female abuse victim who had suffered the same fate...Just reminded my of the HRC idiots for some reason.
June 4, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, I meant "The World According to Garp." Sorry.
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Me, too!
June 4, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Meaning her supporters have had me thinking about "The World According to Garp", too. Not that you should be sorry.....or whatever....
I'm having a hell of a time commenting today. Too much celebrating last night.
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
When speaking to reporters, Obama also described his emotions after he had clinched the nomination and became the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party.
"Obviously it is an enormous honor," he said. "It's very humbling. You think about all the people who have knocked down barriers for me to walk through this door. And the challenges they went through, which were so much more difficult and so much more severe. And the risks they took were so much greater."
"I will say, last night, standing in that auditorium, it struck me that is was a testimony to them."
June 4, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was humbling as a spectator in that auditorium as well. I'm gonna hold onto the excitement and electricity, as well as the humility, for some time.
June 4, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
During those long moments of cheering after Obama spoke the words about being the nominee, it seemed that Obama was as close to showing some overwhelming emotion as I've ever seen. Watch his face and eyes as he works for control of his expression during those moments.
June 4, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm really amused that you do not find your use the word "conscientious" at all ironic.
June 4, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Crap...meant for fogu2.
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
the nuts are comming out!
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/police-shut-down-assassination-art-exhibition/
June 4, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well this will be interesting.
This is a nice free speech issue. The guy is an artist and they make provocative statements all the time - that's partly their function.
I'm almost a free speech purist - but most especially when it comes to artistic expression. I don't like what he did - but that's not the point.
The point is his and all other artists' right to express freely.
June 4, 2008 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am all for anyone having the right and freedom to be stupid in public, just as I am all for the right to publicly call them stupid.
June 4, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally agree. The exhibitions are complete trash(I checked the websites, and thats 3 minutes I can never get back). However, I don't see a ban on crappy "art" anywhere in the Constitution.
What a shithead, though, really.
June 4, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
And from our esteemed statesman Jimmy Carter (from the Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/04/uselections2008
June 4, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, President Carter.
whew!
June 4, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
He would know given his history. Sound advice!
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great. Can he please call Hillary now?
June 4, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, God Bless Jimmy Carter for being willing to speak out with honesty. Too bad it's not in the American newspapers.
June 4, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent and simple observation by carter. Bottom line the clintons negatives far outweigh any positives that the clintons could bring as co-vp nominees.
June 4, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, there 'tis. I don't know what else needs to be said.
Back to the Senate's back bench!
June 4, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the guy that depressed an entire nation with his "Malaise" speech. Self-righteous pontification from an anti-semitic loser.
Stick to peanuts Carter. You're the reason we ended up with Reagan.
June 4, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, he is so anti-Semitic that he brokered the first peace deal between Israel and one of its major arab enemies, a deal which created a peaceful mutual border, enabling the Israel Defense Forces to reduce their levels of alert on Israel's southwestern frontier, and a peace agreement and mutual border which not be violated over 30 years latter.
So kindly fuck yourself gently with a chain-saw you lying GOP troll.
June 4, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
A statement of truly breathtaking idiocy.
June 4, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Greg - {{{{MWAAH!}}}}
big kiss for you.
June 4, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad Pelosi has confirmed the obvious. Obama is the nominee. Clearly, Clinton has become a problem that needs to be managed before she divides the party further in her latest narcissistic fit.
June 4, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now, all we need is for Pelosi to ENDORSE, for Pete's sake. Come on - lead by example...
June 4, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I think it would be bad form for her to endorse. She's going to preside over the convention, so she wants to keep appearing neutral until after the convention and obama is the official nominee.
June 4, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since when does the presider at the Convention remain neutral about the person who is the nominee?
June 4, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. It would just seem kind of odd until clinton concedes. Once clinton concedes, then I can see Pelosi endorsing. Up until then, I just think that it would be bad form. How could Pelosi be viewed as some type of neutral arbiter if by chance there was some type of floor fight? I just think it wouldn't look good. Also, this is the only logical explaination why Pelosi hasn't endorsed yet.
June 4, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I think they've been soft-pedalling this long enough. Time for leadership. It's her job as a Super Delegate and as Speaker to lead. Obama is the Party's nominee. She needs to send a strong message about the Party's support of him as their nominee for President. NOW is the time. There are still 130 SuperDels out there now, just sitting on their hands. Why? What kind of a message is that sending? If they support Hillary, say so. If not, come out and state your strong support for your Party's nominee, so that we can move forward and take McCain on and get some real momentum going here.
June 4, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't disagree about the other supers. Its only pelosi that I can see waiting until she concedes and it arises out of her position in the party.
Also, I think some of the other big supers are giving the clintons a couple of days at this point to concede. If they don't then they will endorse.
June 4, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
But she just called him "the nominee."
June 4, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely!
I applaud her remarks, but can we get some real leadership up in here?!?!
ENDORSE, ALREADY!!!!!
Whichever of Reid, Pelosi and Gore does if first gets a Michelle O. fist bump!
June 4, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
She has 48 slim hours to scratch her watch and wind her butt before history leaves her behind.
June 4, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aw, this is a sweet diary at DailyKos (pictorial essay):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/4/85417/60492/703/529172
It brought tears to my eyes - YES! WE! CAN!
June 4, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the link.
And I posted a link to that Hillary Rosen piece myself this morning.
It is good.
June 4, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I finally got a chance to look at your link myself, Carol, thanks!! It brought a tear to my eye, too.
June 4, 2008 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, that really captured the experience very well. The comment on the large cross-section of America was dead on. Very moving!
June 4, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post by Hillary Rosen over at Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/i-am-not-a-bargaining-chi_b_105133.html
June 4, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I posted that link myself earlier today. That is a good piece by Rosen.
Carol - thanks for your link to the pictures.
June 4, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary Rosen was large enough to admit the truth about Sen Clinton's "speech" last night, an example for Sen Clinton's supporters to well heed.
June 4, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
About goddamned time!
And Greg, I have to quibble with your wording, "Pelosi crowned Obama the nominee." That sounds like a coronation, and that's absolutely not what this election has been about. He earned it with every delegate, and he's as far from an heir to the throne as possible.
June 4, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly HusseinTenaX....thank you President Carter. The Clinton's can't even lose the right way. Who should Obama pick as his veep?
June 4, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whoever he wants. ;)
I honestly don't care - beyond insisting that it not be Hillary.
June 4, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
double post? O comments is getting jiggy wit us!
June 4, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was just going to mention the Rosen post on Huffington. There is hope that devoted HRC supporters will join us. THank you, Ms. Rosen.
And thank you, Ms. Pelosi! If we did not need you where you are, we should nominate you for VP.
June 4, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, I gave a shout out earlier to Taylor Marsh, who is also apparently being a grown up.
I am not overly worried about Hillary's supporters not supporting Barack - I think most of them are grown ups and will get over it and do the right thing.
Those who don't - well they have to look at immature jackasses in the mirror every day.
June 4, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed and I actually think that those that don't wouldn't have backed obama even if the clintons weren't running. It's just a bunch of empty threats.
June 4, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have much hope after attending Obama's speech last night. Hillary supporters were right next to me and they cheered on Obama as well. No, they weren't as excited as the rest of us, but cheer and support they did. I applaud them for coming out and supporting our nominee. There will be unity if Minnesota is an example.
June 4, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's great to hear, but honestly, that has been my experience in real as opposed to virtual space.
I had the same damn experience at my caucus with a Clinton supporter, and I know that woman is going to vote for Obama -and I'll bet all the people in my precinct who lined up for Clinton will vote for Obama.
They are nice, reasonable people from what I could tell in a fairly brief period of time near the start of all this. I grant you that ain't much evidence, but I hear more often, like I did this morning in my ophthalmologist's office - "I don't care which one it is - either one is fine with me can we just get rid of Bush now, please!"
June 4, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Traditionally, VP candidates were not picked until the week of the convention. Senator Obama should just wait it out, and let Hillary twist slowly in the wind. He won. She lost. He owes her nothing. She tried to beat his brains in. Why does she deserve to be rewarded for that.
The winner goes on. The loser must be ignored.
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Hillary lost. Ignore her.
June 4, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
He can afford to wait a bit. The news cycles absent Sen Clinton will do the work for him.
June 4, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You left out nuclear war.
And November 2000.
But, please, let's.
(Ignore her, that is.)
June 4, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dammit!
Meant to preface that with this:
(Innit much funnier when you have to explain it?)
June 4, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was more than a little obvious.
June 4, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
This sentiment doesn't really fit here, but what the hell:
I loved the fist-tap that Barack and Michelle gave each other last night, right before the speech. Call me sappy, but this white guy gets misty-eyed when I think about what they have accomplished and been through.
I'm always proud of my country, but I'm especially proud today.
June 4, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two things we have in common:
1. We're both sappy white guys.
2. We're both immensely proud today.
Football?
Not so much.
6!
June 4, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still trying to figure exactly what they have accomplished.
They get paid very well and live in luxury. Is that what you mean? Then yes, they have done very well...for themselves.
I can't find a single civic accomplishment that either of them can rightly take credit for.
The intern runs for CEO. Chauncy Gardner in real life.
June 4, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey fogu2... go perform an anatomical impossibility.
Ain't no stopping us now...
June 4, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course you can't find them when you refuse to look. And that's because you are a lying GOP troll who is neither a Democrat, a progressive or a Clinton supporter.
June 4, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
We liked that, too. They're a cool couple. :)
June 4, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton's speech: Remarkable--what Jeff Toobin described as "deranged narcissism".
This speech--its very essence--was predicted on May 23rd:
Why Hillary should not be VP:
From "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/head-of-state-reasons-that-hillary.html
Friday, May 23, 2008
Head of State: The Reasons That Hillary Should Not Be Vice President
Regarding Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama's running mate:
Originally, this seemed to be a potentially plausible choice--and if presented in the following way, could turn her divisive campaign into a potential coup as a VP candidate. The thinking was the following:
Hillary has run a divisive campaign. Now, just as the nation should mend its divisions in favor a greater unity that would serve the greater needs of our country, so now they would explicitly put these divisions behind them, in the interests of the unity that this nation, after a bitter and divisive Administration, is so in need of. This would serve as a powerful and vibrant example of the very ability to unify that Obama both offers and represents.
However, this would require a candidate that was willing to take such a position of relative shared selflessness in the interests of a greater good. While the Vice Presidency certainly offers its honors (now far beyond the "warm pitcher" of John Vance Garner's famous phrase) and positioning for later Presidential aspirations, such a plan would require the ability to think in terms of a shared effort based on the betterment of the nation, rather than in more grasping, combative and singular terms.
The Clinton camp's behavior over this past week has made such a positive scenario clearly untenable, showcasing the same characteristics that have signified her campaign throughout its long, chaotic march--its contradictions of previous statements when such changes have a slight possibility of adding a week or two of vitality, its sudden and implausible use of populist guises and specious historical parallels for transparently opportunistic purposes, its near-hallucinogenic transmogrifications of personality and central bases for further continuation,
and the central campaign tendency to place personal attainment over virtually all values that lay in its path.
These characteristics--self over nation, positioning over a consistent presentation of position, values and even self, the willingness to put personal viability over the need to transcend and transform the vast wreckage of state and international relations that remains at this critical time--are as present now, at a moment when wisdom rather than a remorseless, obdurate desperation could fill this gap, as they have been throughout much of the campaign. They would continue to make themselves present during a Clinton campaign for vice president, complicating, diminishing and often distracting from, in trivial internecine battles, the message of unity and change.
Perhaps Clinton could adopt a more unifying, integrated and less grasping position on the VP subject. However, thus far, the actions of the Clinton camp have made it clear: It's time to clean the slate. Hillary Clinton should not be the Vice Presidential candidate.
Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/head-of-state-reasons-that-hillary.html
June 4, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm surprised Pelosi was so gracious, knowing how much she hates Hillary. I'm more surprised that she didn't use the opportunity to poo poo a joint ticket. I'm sure she will do so soon. She's hated Hillary ever since Hillary didn't support her on a Tibet stance.
June 4, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pelosi was being gracious about the historical nature of Clinton's accomplishment. As the first female speaker of the House, she knows of what she speaks.
Pelosi doesn't like the DLC wing of the DNC. Pelosi is more of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.
June 4, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Face it. Obama is Axelrod's puppet. Axelrod had a concept for how to win, personality vs. policy, and then went looking for someone he could use to carry out the plan. He's an evil genius. Evil nonetheless.
And now we're stuck with the puppet.
I urge all 18 million Clinton supporters to sit out the election. This process has been a travesty.
Democratic Conscientious Objectors unite!
June 4, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM should have better troll squashing. Dissent is one thing, fuckwadness is another.
June 4, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad President Carter is finally saying something. More people need to point this out because hillary continued to say "I'm more electable" over and over, it seems like not many people stopped to question it. That woman brings 8 years of anti-Clinton hostilities out from the rush republicans - many of whom may be otherwise disinclined to get off the couch this November. She should be avoided like the plague.
June 4, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
She can't be history until she goes away.
June 4, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink