Saturday, December 31, 2011

So Wrong, It's Gotta Be Right

While I wasn't paying much attention to the Internet, Robert Reich went and said something egregiously stupid:
So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.

Why do I say this? Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base that’s been disillusioned with his cave-ins to regressive Republicans. Hillary Clinton on the ticket can do that.

My Political Prediction for 2012: It’s Obama-Clinton
There aren't a whole lot of things I know about politics, but one of them is surely this: I know, within a half percent of the electorate or so, how many voters who don't live or work in the Washington, DC area care about who the vice presidential nominee is on a ticket. That number is zero. No one cares. Face it, next to who is second in the American League's most walked category each year, there is nothing that matters less in our lives than who is the person who sits around for four years not quite daring to hope that something bad happens to the President.

Unless the Vice President is named Dick Cheney, the person occupying that position has almost no power to affect anything of importance. In fact, President Bush would have been within his rights to tell Cheney to shut the hell up and stay down at the Naval Observatory until he was needed, which would be about the same time that Hell froze over.

That's the first thing Reich got wrong.

The next is what we're upset about. It's not about Obama's "cave-ins" to the GOP. It's that this is what he wants to do, and that no one in the Democratic Party has been willing to tell the truth about that, let alone stand up for what the party should be about.

What they do instead is suggest things like changing Vice Presidents.

All that wrong in a few sentences.

The only thing he may not have gotten wrong is that Obama will make this change. It won't make any difference, but there are plenty of folks like Reich who think it will. One of the things you can count on from our leaders is that when the going gets tough, the tough change the org charts. If I thought Hillary Clinton still had her own ambitions about being President some day, I'd think it unlikely that she'd accept such an offer, but she's in her mid-sixties now. She may really be thinking about retiring soon.

Being associated with the failures of a second term of Barack Obama's presidency would be an excellent way to guarantee having nothing better to do than go home. I suppose that under those circumstances, being the first female Vice Presidential candidate who got to move into the Observatory would be achievement enough.

So it's possible that Reich could be wrong, and still be right. Sadly, that's how things are these days in our nation's capital. Often, doing something dramatic is more important than doing something that makes sense.


5 comments:

lawguy said...

Well yes, but lets talk about the horse race, rather than anything substantial.

And happy new year.

Cujo359 said...

Yes, maybe we should be placing our bets...

Happy New Year back atcha, lawguy.

Unknown said...

What? We are placing our bets already? And here I am without a program. Hey, here is hot one, Knacker's Choice in the third- a sure thing. Oh wait, Knacker's has been scratched and replaced by Ralf Nader--at the same odds.

I can not see Our Most Sacred Lady Of The Tastefully Appointed Pant-Suite (Hillary) wanting the pointless job of VP. As John Nance Garner pointed out the job is "not worth a bucket of warm piss."

However recent Presidents from Saint Ronny of Raygun have delegated a lot of power to their VP, and Joe Biden has continued in that regard although he did not have the power of Darth Cheney.

But there is no Constitutional reason Barry would have to have Hillary do anything for him but wait for him to die and cast the occasional tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

I don't see any particular reason HRC would want to have the job, I seriously doubt she even wants to stay on at SoS if Obama gets reelected. Stick a fork in her, she is done. She most likely would rather semi-retire and go out on the NGO hustings with the Big Dog.

I could see Hillary being dragged into the VP slot by a desperate Barack Obama as a ploy to gin up some enthusiasm in the the base. Why anyone would actually be distracted by such a ploy, other than Riech, is a question that is beyond me. Somehow feminists are suposed to forget Stupack and get all gooey because Barry nominated the first sitting VP? Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.

Any-Who, Happy Solstice festival, New Year, Year of the Dragon, to you Cujo359. I hope you saved a little of the strong stuff for the third because: Iowa, Iowa, Iowa and then NH coming right at us. *shudder*

Cujo359 said...

There have certainly been VPs who have had a role to play once they were in office. LBJ comes to mind, too. But in any case that isn't named George W. Bush, it's been the President's administration, and his goals and priorities that mattered. That's why I don't care who ends up as VP. The choice could help the ticket in some way, but it's not by attracting voters.

Which is the other reason I don't think Hillary Clinton would take the job. What could she do for the Obama Admin. that Joe Biden couldn't already? Hard to think of anything, really.

And yes, I don't see anything in it for her. Maybe she'll take on an NGO, maybe she'll take her pulse in a couple of years and decide to try for the White House one more time, but either option is better than being Veep.

Cujo359 said...

Oh, and hope you had a good Christmas, James, and have a Happy New Year.