Sen. Barack Obama today flatly rejected suggestions he would be a vice presidential running mate for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The liberal New York Democrat and her husband, former President Clinton, have suggested a joint Clinton-Obama ticket -- with Sen. Obama in the second slot. On Saturday, President Clinton suggested that a Clinton-Obama ticket would be "unstoppable."
Sen. Obama forcefully shot that idea down. "Sen. Clinton is fighting hard. She's tenacious. I respect her for that. She is working hard to win the nomination. But I want everybody to be absolutely clear. I'm not running for vice president. I'm running for president of the United States of America," Sen. Obama told supporters during a rally in Columbus, Mississippi. If anyone should be suggesting vice presidential candidates, it should be him, the liberal Illinois Democrat said. "With all due respect. I won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I've won more of the popular vote than Sen. Clinton. I have more delegates than Sen. Clinton. So, I don't know how somebody who's in second place is offering vice presidency to the person who's in first place," he said.
Sen. Obama also said the Clinton campaign was "hoodwinking" voters when it suggested he was not ready to be president while also floating the possibility of a joint Clinton-Obama ticket. "I don't understand," he said. "If I'm not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?"
My response: On the FOX News Channel earlier today, various commentators discussed this issue. John McWhorter, a moderate-liberal Democrat who is backing Sen. Obama for president, charitably said that the Clintons may be making this proposal because Sen. Clinton is older than Sen. Obama and thus should be at the top of the ticket "and I'll leave it at that." I'll call it the way that Mr. McWhorter did not on television: white arrogance and condescension on the part of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. The Clintons believe that even though a black candidate is beating her in the Democratic race, he should be subservient to her interests because she, after all, is white. What nonsense, and I'm glad Sen. Obama came out with his response.
Obama Rejects Being Clinton's No. 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
I don't think McWhorter is being charitable enough. It's not about age, or she'd have to support McCain over herself.
You can't understand anything about Hillary Clinton without understanding that she thinks it's her turn, and he's interfered with her one chance to achieve her life goal. It's simply about that. If it had been John Edwards, should would have felt the same way. An interloper is an interloper, and one who achieves such huge popularity might be worth thinking about as a running mate, but in her mind she deserves this presidency. This is her life goal that he's stealing from her. If she can get him to put it off for a bit by being VP, she'll do what she can to get voters to prefer that.
Post a Comment