Well, that went as expected. It will be interesting to see what the spin on this is. It was a feel-good event, and Hillary spoke beautifully, but I want to see what she's like stumping by herself. I bet she really lets McCain have it then.

2:02 Ah, no Dream Ticket. Yet!

2:01 Can you imagine sitting next to him on a plane? "Can we get some extra peanuts here? Yes, We Can!"

1: 55 We will recruit an army of teachers? "Sing you're A-B-C's, you maggot!"

1: 51 "...they can do it better than the boys, and they can do it in heels!" That was a little clumsy. Hillary looks like she's having fun. "I still don't know how she does it in heels." Maybe we can get him a pair.

1: 47 I want Barack Obama to speak at my son's birthday party. "He has worked tirelessly to remove every diaper, to scatter every pot and pan, to make sure that no wall, and no piece of furniture, has to go without random crayon markings.



Aha! Live video! Thanks to Diana.

Update: I spoke with a well-placed source in Hillary Clinton's campaign, who told me a couple of interesting things. He said Obama will definitely not be picking a VP just to win a state, and that the short list now includes Hillary, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, and maybe Chuck Hagel. I've got a good feeling about this.


He also said, as I have, that Obama is doing so surprisingly well against McCain that he can pretty much pick his own ticket, but that the longer the choice takes, the better it is for Hillary.


Also, here's video of Bayh telling Andrea Mitchell today that he would say yes if asked to be VP.


The Obama campaign has sent out the final details on the candidate's first joint campaign appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton.

CHICAGO, IL- Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama will hold a "Unite for Change" Rally this Friday in Unity, New Hampshire. Both candidates received exactly 107 votes in the western New Hampshire town in the primary. See below for important event details regarding ticketing and parking.

Full text of the press release follows the jump. There's one detail that is omitted here, and that is whether or not Barack Obama will announce Hillary Clinton as his selection for Vice President.

This comes on the heels of Barack Obama's appeal to donors, Wednesday, to help pay down Hillary's campaign debt, and a reported meet 'n greet today between Obama and Hillary's big donors. There's magic in the air!

Ordinarily, I'm not a betting man, but one of my readers issued a challenge that I couldn't just ignore. Since tomorrow is so fraught with symbolism, I have a feeling in me bones, so I'd like to give my readers, and fellow writers, a chance to get in on this. To find out why I'm so sure there will be a Dream Ticket, just click the words Dream Ticket.

Former Hillary Clinton staffer, Patti Solis Doyle, has been selected by the Obama campaign to be the Chief of Staff for whomever gets the VP nod from Obama.

A long-time Clinton aide, you'll remember that Solis Doyle, the first Hispanic woman to lead a presidential campaign, left the Clinton camp back in February after being accused of some insiders of financial mismanagement and problems getting along with other factions in Clinton's inner circle. She was replaced by Maggie Williams.

Solis Doyle's selection by the Obama campaign will make her the highest-ranking Hispanic in the Obama camp.

Face Off is back! Two of our writers will be posting separate pieces on a hot-button topic. You can check out both and then vote for the one that speaks to you and aligns with your views.

Today the topic is the pros and cons of an Obama/Clinton ticket. Dreamy or nightmarish?



Tommy Christopher writes:

Should Barack Obama pick Hillary Clinton to be his vice president? Never has such an obvious answer been so hotly debated. The answer really only depends on one factor: How much does Barack Obama want to win by in November? Read more

Mark Impomeni writes:

The greatest danger that the Clintons pose for Obama comes not from their detractors, but from the Clintons themselves. And, ironically, it is here that Sen. Clinton's large following argues against her selection as Obama's running mate.... Read More

As the echoes of Hillary Clinton's concession die down somewhat, and turn into a low buzz about her chances of being named VP, Camille Paglia over at Salon throws an unusually wet blanket on the idea of a "Dream Ticket."

Hillary for veep? Are you mad? What party nominee worth his salt would chain himself to a traveling circus like the Bill and Hillary Show? If the sulky bearded lady wasn't biting the new president's leg, the oafish carnival barker would be sending in the clowns to lure all the young ladies into back-of-the-tent sword-swallowing. It would be a seamy orgy of scheming and screwing. Hillary could never be content with second place. But neither could an alpha male like Obama. The vice president should be an accomplished but subordinate personality. An Obama-Hillary ticket might tickle party regulars, but it would be a big fat minus in the general election. Republicans have shrewdly stockpiled a mammoth arsenal of past scandals to strafe Hillary with. Only a sentimental masochist would want to relive the tawdry 1990s.

I've heard Camille interviewed before, heard people talk about her, but never actually read anything by her. She pulled off a neat trick here. She got me to completely disagree with her, yet want to go out and buy all of her books.

Actually, there were other, less colorfully written, things in the piece that I did agree with.

Susan Estrich does a good job of illustrating what has to be the crackpot theory of the week. As crackpot theories go, it's a good one, having the necessary elements of being wildly out there, with that thin shred of plausibility that makes everyone go, "Hmmm..."

The concern is that Hillary could take a page from the book of one Joe Lieberman, once and former good Democrat, and decide that having lost out on his party's nomination to someone he couldn't see winning a general election, the better option (for him) was to run himself in the fall. Which he did. And won. Beating the liberal Democrat who had beaten him in the primary.

Of course, in Lieberman's case, it was his senate seat, which had been his for some time, in a state where he'd been winning for some time, in a contest where the fate of the Supreme Court, the federal courts, the environment, the right to choose, and a few other things like that didn't hang in the balance.

Could Hillary be planning to run as a third party candidate, to try to find the space between McCain and Obama, and fill it, and do what no one has done before at the national level?

If she thought there were more than 50% chance of the plan working, I think she would do it in a heartbeat. But as Estrich goes on and explains the hurdles involved, she concludes that Hillary would rather be VP and set herself up for 2012 or 2016. It's just too chancy and the biggest hurdle would be raising the money, without a party structure she would have to build a money infrastructure from nothing, and she is tapped out. Risky endeavor plus no money means this one remains on the crackpot theory shelf.

I find your lack of faith...disturbing. – Tommy Christopher using hackneyed Darth Vader voice

For months, I have been saying that the "Dream Ticket" is inevitable, but the Yeahbuts won't listen. "Yeah, but...okay, but..."

Whether you think it's a good idea or not, or you think Barack and/or Hillary won't go for it, it doesn't matter. It is going to happen. There's no other play. If Obama passes up a sure win in November because Hillary was mean to him, or if she says no because she thinks she's already won by seating deceased delegates whose spirits have not "crossed over," they will both be subjected to Bill Buckner-esque ridicule for the rest of their political lives.

A friend from work asked me an interesting question, though. She said, "Do you really think Hillary will have any power to get things done as the Vice President?"

I thought for a second and said, "Are you kidding me? She'll be Obama's Cheney, only tougher and marginally less evil."

This Saturday, Hillary Clinton is set to announce her concession from the Democratic Primary race, and her endorsement of Barack Obama. Could there be another surprise? The gaping hole in Barack Obama's schedule certainly makes room for an intriguing possibility. From The LA Times:

After tending to one last bit of pressing business -- an unpublicized visit Thursday night with Hillary Clinton in Washington for a chat the entire political universe would have killed to overhear -- Barack Obama headed to his Chicago home for what his schedule listed as three days of downtime.

I am definitely reaching here, but could this clearing of the decks be in aid of a joint concession/VP announcement? Is it even physically possible for Barack Obama to sneak into Washington, D.C., unnoticed?

An announcement like that would have several positives, and few negatives. First of all, it would be a stunning PR move for the Democrats. Hillary's speech is the only game in town this weekend, so there will be lots of attention focused there.

Unless you've been under a rock for the last two days, you now know that Hillary is quitting/conceding/congratulating, and because she's a Clinton and Clinton's don't quit, it is highly likely that she was either threatened with something, or she was promised something.

Since I doubt that Hillary is scared of much, I'm going to go with an assumption that she was promised something. Other than a keynote at the convention that is, the big speech is a given. VP? That's doubtful. I don't think she wants to play second fiddle if Obama wins, and she certainly doesn't want to be anywhere near the wreckage if Obama loses.

But this speculation is interesting:

If Obama were to promise Clinton the first court vacancy, her supporters would actually have a stronger incentive to support him for president than they would if she were going to be vice president. Given the Supreme Court's delicate liberal-conservative balance, she would play a major role in charting the country's future; there is no guarantee that a Clinton vice presidency would achieve such importance.

For nearly a year and a half, Clinton has been fighting a bruising battle. Many appointees and officials from her husband's administration have turned their backs on her; she has lost the support of friends she had every reason to believe would stand by her. She has campaigned tirelessly only to discover that, according to polls, more than half the populace mistrusts her. Yes, she can still hope for 2012 or 2016, but why trust that she will be viewed differently next time around? (A recent CNN "quick poll" found that nearly 70 percent of respondents believed someone other than Clinton would be the first female president.)

From the Democratic point of view it has a nice angle in that it removes her from contention permanently, and a Democratic senate would be likely to confirm one of their own, so I don't see a problem there. On the crackpot theory scale, I would have to rate this one as scary close to possible.