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Obama/Clinton Ticket: Be Afraid, John McCain

By Tommy Christopher
May 7th 2008 9:58AM

Filed Under:eHillary Clinton, Democrats, Barack Obama, Featured Stories, Veepstakes

Be afraid, John McCain. Be very afraid.

I'm going to do a Joe Namath here and guarantee victory in November for President Obama and Vice President Clinton. In the past several days, every single regular voter that I've talked to has said that such a ticket is a guaranteed winner, and I'm inclined to agree. The hardest part of this election, some would argue, will be engineering that ticket. I disagree.

I wrote a piece back in March, or as it's known in campaign circles, The Paleolithic Era, making the case for a dream ticket. Check it out if you can, much of the analysis still holds true. One key, and discouraging, difference:

Jonathan Alter last night on Countdown floated the notion that the 32% of Hillary supporters who promise to flip to McCain will come to their senses by November, but he didn't address McCain's strong appeal to women voters. 32% of Hillary supporters is a large bloc, certainly large enough to swing the general election. Barack would be a fool to risk that. Conversely, Obama's mainly young supporters are less likely to actually stick with McCain, who does poorly with that demo.
Exit polls last night showed that now, only 45% of Hillary voters would support an Obama-led ticket, as opposed to 70% of Obama voters who would have backed a Hillary nod. That's okay, I have the answer to that problem. If the Democrats are smart, and I know there's precious little evidence of that lately, they will...

Is an Obama/Clinton ticket a sure winner?

Updates: Comments from both campaigns at the end of the story. If the Democrats are smart, and I know there's precious little evidence of that lately, they will...get Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a room with Howard Dean and Luca Brasi, and lay it out like this: Hillary, America needs you. A joint ticket is a guaranteed winner, and you know it. Think about this. If we announce the ticket today, you never have to give a concession speech. You go from the middle of the fight to an acceptance speech.

I don't think Hillary is that concerned with saving face, but what it will do that she does care about is protect her political power. If she waits to accept, or even refuses, she'll look like Vegas Elvis, wandering around flashing her DEA badge.

Now, Obama might have some hard feelings, and I have much less of a read on him personally, but I think both he and Senator Clinton are, above all else, smart politicians. Still, if he needs prodding, Howard and Luca can always lean on him a little.

Democrats on both sides have begun to show signs of reconciliation, too. One of my readers last night had what I think will be a typical epiphany for fervent Hillacrats:
She is gonna make herself look worse if she can't step down gracefully. I too like and voted for her, but she won't win. Obama is gonna be a bitter pill, but he is a dem and for all the crap I have talked on here about voting mccain, stemmed from anger and spite. We have to get a dem in office!
Once this Dream Ticket is in place, which I would strongly recommend the Dems get done by week's end, I feel sorry for John McCain. Almost. He's like a kid laughing at a junkyard dog mauling another kid. He's going to notice, too late, that when the junkyard dog looks his way, he's on the wrong side of that fence.

Take all the trouble that Hillary has caused Obama, then double it, and multiply it by W. That's day one of the hurtin' that Hillary's going to put on John McCain. She's going to be like ED 209, and McCain is going to wish he skipped work that day. For those of you unfamiliar with Robocop, she's going to be like Anton Chigurch, Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning hitman, flipping a coin and asking McCain to call it.

What's great about this, too, is that it effectively neutralizes most of the damage Clinton laid on Obama in the primaries. The media, and the Republicans, will throw the Clinton campaign's quotes at Obama, but her campaign will be there to hit 'em right back at McCain. Only Clinton's campaign has the brass ones to pivot their narrative on a dime, chuck the whole silverware drawer at you, then scold you for covering up your face.

Yes, the thought of Hillary Clinton on Obama's ticket fills me with joy. For years, we've watched the GOP make "Boom-Boom" Mancini out of the Democrats, but now, I laugh at the thought. Barack had a measure of the high ground and good, solid policies to protect him a little. McCain has tissue paper and faith in a merciful God.

One last quote from my March story:
This campaign has been called historic, and I would agree with that characterization, but I would do so because I have never seen a campaign between two smarter politicians. An Obama/Clinton campaign is the smart move, and I trust them to make it happen.
Remember, folks, you heard it here first.

Update: From today's Clinton conference call:
Tommy Christopher: Almost every regular voter that I've spoken to in the past 2 weeks has said that a joint ticket is an automatic Democratic victory in November. Can such a ticket even be avoided at this point, and have the campaigns had any talks about the inevitability of such a ticket, the order notwithstanding?

Howard Wolfson: We have not had conversations with the Obama campaign about such a ticket. The Senator feels that any talk of this is premature, and she hasn't expressed any interest in it, as far as I've heard.


Dang! Almost had a scoop!

Update: From today's Obama conference call:
Tommy Christopher: Almost every regular voter that I've spoken to in the past 2 weeks has said that a joint ticket is an automatic Democratic victory in November. Can such a ticket even be avoided at this point? Also, I liked what Senator McCaskill said (earlier in the call) about respecting Senator Clinton and letting her finish the race on her own terms, but what about the idea of offering Senator Clinton the VP slot in private, allowing her to skip the concession speech and go right to an acceptance speech?

David Plouffe: The Senator feels, and I believe Senator Clinton has also said, that any talk of this is premature, as there are a number of contests remaining.
Dang! Deja-frakkin'-vu! That's OK, I planted the idea, sort of a political cupid's arrow. Let's see what happens.

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