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Clinton and Obama ticket 2008? Think again
BY JARED DYRDAHL
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
iISSUE: 78/25
ASSOCIATED PRESS
After winning the Texas and Ohio Primaries, New York Senator Hilary Clinton hinted that she would be willing to run with Illinois Senator Barack Obama on the same ticket, but seemed to hint that she should be at the top of her ticket as the candidate for president.
This is a sentiment echoed by several powerful people in the Democratic Party, including potential First Gentleman Bill Clinton, according to a CNNPolitics.com article titled “Bill Clinton: A Clinton-Obama ticket would be unstoppable.” Though this possible dynamic duo could be a force to be reckoned with at the polls in November, it is highly unlikely that this idea will ever become reality.
Obama has endured many slings and arrows launched at him from the Clinton campaign, but this offer is probably the biggest slap in the face and is the most laughable by far. Obama has a healthy lead on Clinton in terms of delegates and states won, and he regained some of the momentum he lost when he fell to Clinton in the Texas and Ohio primaries by winning the primary in Mississippi.
If Obama accepted the secondary role on the Democratic Party ticket, it would not only be foolish, but it would also be a betrayal of the sentiment that seems to characterize this election. Obama represents the kind of person that people want to see infused into Washington politics: an outsider. The very same inexperience in Washington that Clinton lambastes Obama for may actually be what is helping him win this race. It is clear that the American people want change in their democratic institutions that are currently dominated by two parties. We need look no further than the nomination of Senator John McCain (a politician who has defied his own party on several occasions) to see evidence of this emerging political sentiment in the United States electorate. Obama is on the cusp of defying the odds and overcoming the roadblocks constructed by the old guard of the Democratic Party (for instance, the superdelegate system).
Clinton’s call for a truce shows just how desperate and dire her situation is in this race. Her call for a truce really represents a last ditch effort by the establishment of the Democratic Party to hold on to control of who they select as a candidate. Perhaps they think that more time in Washington can help swing Obama from the outsider perspective to one more conducive to the party-dominant system that exists today in Washington.
However, the olive branch extended by Clinton, if accepted by Obama, should more appropriately be classified as a dagger stabbed in the backs of American voters who have stood up and voiced their desire for change in Washington. Obama should accept nothing less than the Democratic Presidential nomination that he has an excellent chance of winning this summer.
