Tuesday, January 22, 2008

An interesting strategy....

The Clinton campaign's use of former President Bill Clinton as the attack dog is certainly creating quite the conversation -- as did last night's testy back-and-forth between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton . There once was this "understanding" within the Democratic Party that you didn't speak badly about another Democrat, but that "rule" doesn't appear to be in play anymore.

Watching some of the political pundits last night, I found one analysis particularly interesting. The question was how damaging is the public fued between Obama and the Clintons to the party's overall effort to win in November. The consensus was: Extremely.

That assessment is based on the idea that because of the closeness of the race between the two it only makes sense that no matter who wins the nomination, the "smart" move is to take the other one on as a running mate so that we'll have either a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket. But the sharp exchanges taking place is making that more and more difficult. The end result could be the loss of a key Democratic voting block for the Clintons -- the black vote.

It's an interesting theory, but I'm not convinced it has a lot of merit. First, I can't see Hillary accepting a number two spot on anyone's ticket...and I'm not sure the American public would believe a Clinton/Obama ticket.

What do you think?

2 Comments:

Blogger wtfdnucsailor said...

People didn't believe a Kennedy-Johnson ticket in 1960 either. If the country is ready for a woman president or an African American president then why not the combo ticket. The Clinton machine, Obama's soaring oratory and Bill Clinton's 'I feel your pain' oratory. It would be a tough campaign to beat, especially in the middle of a recession.

10:57 AM  
Blogger mlnmatt said...

There once was this "understanding" within the Democratic Party that you didn't speak badly about another Democrat, but that "rule" doesn't appear to be in play anymore.

You're thinking about the Republicans. Democrats never had that rule.

4:37 PM  

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