Barack Obama and his team of advisors don’t really want to pick Hillary as VP.  We all know this.  So how does he deny her a spot on the ticket without alienating her supporters?  Simple.  Jackie Calmes reports in the Wall Street Journal that they would ask Bill to disclose donors to his presidential library, and both of them would have to go through a thorough vetting process (that could potentially disclose more skeletons in the Clinton closet) in order for her to even be considered as a potential VP.   Looks like a deal-breaker to me. Genius move.

Hillary Clinton got her needed Pennsylvania win over Barack Obama, and the final margin will probably be around 8 points. It does give her enough of an argument to keep going in the race, and many Republicans hope she will prolong this contest a few more months, even though we know that Barack will prevail in the end. It is surprising that even with all Barack’s strengths as a campaigner and his overall charisma, his lead is not expanding by a much wider margin over Hillary Clinton. Hillary is right when she says that Barack can’t seem to close the deal with Democrats. It should be a no-brainer for them, with all the negatives Hillary’s carrying around. She has stayed in this race long enough to expose some of Barack’s weaknesses, and that’s another reason why Hillary isn’t giving up yet. She’s holding out hope that he will make a more serious mistake than the minor gaffes we have seen from him so far. It could happen. However, it’s a hard case to make to the superdelegates that she will be the strongest candidate against McCain in November if she loses the popular vote and the delegate count to Barack Obama.

Update: The final numbers are closer to 10 points.  It still may not make much difference to the final outcome, but Hillary’s still in and not going away any time soon.

From the very quotable Andrew Sullivan:

The Clintons have always had a touch of the zombies about them: unkillable, they move relentlessly forward, propelled by a bloodlust for Republicans or uppity Democrats who dare to question their supremacy. You can’t escape; you can’t hide; and you can’t win. And these days, in the kinetic pace of the YouTube campaign, they are like the new 28 Days Later zombies. They come at you really quickly, like bats out of hell. Or Ohio, anyway.

Heh. There’s something to this analogy, though. It’s hard to believe that Hillary Clinton, who has wanted this job her whole life, would easily surrender her claim to the throne to Barack Obama. As Sullivan points out, the Clintons have been fighting and clawing to gain political power for themselves their whole political lives. Why would it be different now? Hillary and Bill have (so far) refused to believe that the Democratic party has moved on from Clinton nostalgia. This is a wise choice for the Democrats. Despite the overwhelmingly positive views of them by a few lib holdouts, the average Dem knows that their future isn’t with the past. The Clintons aren’t the guiding force behind the party anymore, and it’s a hard realization to make for both of them.

Even though the Clintons don’t have as much political power now as they think they do, it’s still enough to keep Barack from scoring a decisive knockout in the early rounds. Hillary is not to be underestimated. That zombie-like quality she has to keep surviving when people keep counting her out makes her a tough opponent — both to Barack and to John McCain. That’s why I question the wisdom of Republicans who crossed over to vote for Hillary in TX and OH. Did they really want to take the chance that she would get the Democratic nomination? She has destroyed all of her former Senate opponents. Anybody remember Rick Lazio? Jeanine Pirro? Rudy Giuliani (whose Senate and Presidential campaign was over before it began)? Don’t expect her to take it easy on John McCain.

The strategy that works against those evil Republicans doesn’t work against the Man of Hope. Until recently, she hasn’t been able to land any punches on Barack Obama. Wouldn’t it be ironic if that red phone ad questioning Barack’s readiness to be Commander-in-Chief ended up hurting him in the general election? Hillary has no choice but to go for the jugular if she still wants to win. But it’s a tough balancing act she will have to do here. Saying that Barack isn’t as qualified as herself and John McCain is dangerous if she isn’t 100% + sure she will win the Democratic nomination. Whatever happens in this Democratic contest…it will be a lot of fun to watch from the sidelines.

Tags: ’08 election, Andrew Sullivan, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain

About time someone did. This, from the CBS news blog(h/t: kos):

“I have not seen any evidence that she is better equipped to handle a crisis,” he said. “If the only criteria is longevity in Washington, then she’s certainly not going to beat John McCain on that. “

He goes on:

One of the things that I hope people start asking is what exactly is this foreign experience that she’s claiming? I know she talks about visiting 80 countries. It’s not clear, was she negotiating treaties or agreements or was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is the answer is no.

Heh. Of course they are both less experienced than John McCain. Does this matter as much to Democrats as it does to Republicans? Byron York suggests that it does not.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll, finished a couple of weeks ago, asked Ohio Democrats to name the most important issue in their choice of a presidential candidate. Thirty-four percent said the economy and jobs. Thirty percent said health care. Nine percent said the war in Iraq, by which they most certainly meant a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops. Three percent said ethics and honesty in government. Three percent said “change.” Two percent said education. And one percent said terrorism and national security. (The Post and ABC asked the same question in Texas, and the answers were similar; one percent named terrorism and national security as the top issue.)

Those numbers are supported by the experience of just walking around in Ohio. I ask a lot of people why they support, or don’t support, Hillary Clinton, and no one tells me it is because she would be a better or worse commander-in-chief than Barack Obama.

The economy will be a major issue for both parties. The depth of the misery is debatable, but Republicans cannot afford to ignore the economy and talk about national security 24/7. Most voters aren’t single-issue voters, even though Republicans see national security as a primary reason to vote McCain over Hillary and Barack. McCain needs to show that he has an alternative plan to deal with the other concerns of voters, including health care and the economy. National security and the fear of liberals screwing up the country wasn’t a good enough argument in the ’06 midterm. It won’t be enough in November.

Tags: ’08 election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain

Hillary continues to struggle in these debates. She had some substantive things to say, but her attacks on Barack Obama did not achieve the desired objective. They didn’t change the mind of Obama voters. It doesn’t matter that she may know more on foreign policy, or that she has a detailed health care proposal. She is, and will always be, the kind of Washington insider and divisive figure that cannot be a agent of change. Barack Obama offers not only a clean break from President Bush, but also a clean break from the D.C. Democrats and from the Clinton nostalgia that has held the Democrat party captive since Bill left office. In some ways, the change Obama offers is radical. But most of his ideas aren’t new or original.  They are the same Democratic boilerplate policies that have failed in the past, and will continue to fail in the future.

The media has called this race for Obama, and they will continue to be biased and ask Hillary tougher questions.  You saw some of this last night in the debate.  Hillary got the majority of the hard questions, and Obama was able to dodge his few tough questions and emerge unscathed from the encounter.  The only hope Hillary Clinton has was for Barack to stumble, and so far he has not.   All her arguments for herself and against Obama have fallen flat.   Texas and Ohio will have their say, but Barack Obama will still be the Democrat nominee, because the Democrats are ready to move on from the 90’s.

There have been many articles written about the failures of the Clinton campaign to get Hillary to the nomination with all the built-in advantages she had in the beginning.  I don’t argue that Hillary’s team has run the most competent campaign.  They have made mistakes.  However, Hillary Clinton is (and always was) a flawed candidate, and it’s a credit to her team that she’s made it this far. I really did want the pleasure of voting against her, but if the Democrats end up rejecting her and picking Obama instead, I will be ok with that too.

McCain must get his game face on, because the media will continue to give Obama favorable coverage.  He needs to have a better game plan against Obama than Hillary did, or he will suffer the same possible fate as she does now.