Time to Get off the Stage

A little trouble with my eye has slowed me down on writing for Sense, but I am continuing to follow the campaign for the Democratic nomination and to sing with the ever increasing "chorista punditi". I would not be so demeaning to Hillary as to say she will be the singing fat lady that ends the opera, but I suppose that role could be credited to the voters in North Carolina and Indiana yesterday. Hillary was waxed in North Carolina and survived by the skin of her teeth in Indiana.

Hillary is going deeper into debt to keep her ineffective machine rolling. Undeclared super delegates are waiting for her collapse, while those that have declared since February heavily favor Obama. Her rapid moving of the goal posts after each setback has become ludicrous. Her pathetic pandering by joining McCain in the gas tax holiday farce has amplified the distrust most voters have of her.

The handful of States left to vote are now almost irrelevant, with their outcomes essentially predetermined, and with Obama to achieve his electoral delegate majority in the next couple weeks. Realistically Hillary can now only try to salvage some of these items: look magnanimous by quitting after a victorious night at the polls, like maybe when she wins in West Virginia; get the Obama campaign to pay her campaign debts; try to look like a principled fighter by negotiating some deal about counting Florida and Michigan; have some say in the process of choosing the Obama running mate; avoid being marginalized by the Obama administration and the Democratic power wielders; and keep open her option to run next time if Obama loses this year.

Focus is now seriously shifting to the candidates for running mate. One thing for sure in my mind is that it should not be Hillary. Obama is a move to the future, and Clinton back to the past. Choosing Clinton would conflict the Obama message. As a VP candidate, Hillary might have more to gain by losing than by winning. She was willing to play second fiddle to Bill, at least in public, while sometimes acting as a power sharer behind the scenes, all the while expecting to have her own shot at the first spot down the line. If she became VP under Obama, I think she would always resent him as a usurper. Her very presence in the executive branch would result in constant attacks by the myriad of Clinton haters, continuing a process of distraction and polarization that Obama himself offers us hope of escaping.

Once Hillary leaves the stage, excitement will shift to the VP choices. McCain may have to pick someone from the right wing, further showing him as more of a flipper than a maverick. Obama will have a greater choice of compatible mates to consider. I hope Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri gets on the list of VP possibilities. Since coming out in support of Obama, she has been making some favorable TV appearances on his behalf. She might be able to keep older women voters from defecting, and being from a swing, border State, bring that aspect to the ticket. She has experience in the State Legislature, as State Auditor and as an elected prosecuting attorney.