Female Running Mates!

Who could have possibly predicted that McCain would choose a female running mate to try to steal some of Clinton's female votes?

Well, I DID! Of course, I didn't predict that he would randomly pick the first anti-choice woman he could find; I thought he would pick a moderate woman people had actually heard of.

The point is, he wouldn't have chosen a woman at all if Obama had put Clinton on the Democratic ticket. I just don't buy the argument that he couldn't put her on the ticket because the primary election was just too ugly. Oh, Obama got his feelings hurt so he's not going to do what he needs to do to win this election? I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. Primary elections are ugly and there is a lot of fighting and then, when they are over, everyone makes upt and the winning candidate picks a running mate who will help him or her win. Who cares that they said nasty things about each other? In this case, there was more nastiness than usual but that's only because the primary campaign went on longer than usual; and the reason it went on so long is because Clinton had so many supporters. Obama supporters would have still supported him even if Clinton had been on the ticket and most of the Clinton supporters would have supported Obama because she would still be on the ticket.

The reason I bring this up is that there is only one way for Obama to win this and that is for Clinton to campaign her ass off for the next two months, which she will. She and Obama will suddenly be best friends and she will be out there campaigning like she is the VP candidate, getting those voters back. It just would have made the job a little easier if she WERE the VP candidate.

I fully support Obama. I just think he shot himself in the foot by not picking a candidate who already had such a large support base and could have brought him so many votes. And I don't think he didn't pick her because his feelings were hurt or because he thought his supporters would flee; I think he didn't pick her because Democrats are scared of the Clintons. It's the same reason Al Gore distanced himself from Bill Clinton in 2000; the Clintons come with baggage and there are voters who hate them passionately. The thing is, they are very popular and you distance yourself from them at your own peril. They get those moderate, middle-class white voters and we can't win this election without them.

Like I said, I think Hillary Clinton will work her ass off and help get Obama elected. I think she will be able to convince enough people that Sarah Palin is not a good Hillary Clinton substitute. But it is going to be an uphill battle and much more difficult than it needed to be.