Clinton Fighting for VP?

Hillary Clinton desperately wants to be on the ticket, even if it’s in the number 2 slot, AP reports.

Clinton Fighting for VP?

Hillary Rodham Clinton told colleagues Tuesday she would be consider joining Barack Obama as his running mate, and advisers said she was withholding a formal departure from the race partly to use her remaining leverage to press for a spot on the ticket.

On a conference call with other New York lawmakers, Clinton, a New York senator, said she was willing to become Obama’s vice presidential nominee if it would help Democrats win the White House, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak for Clinton.

Clinton’s remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who said she believed the best way for Obama to win key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.

“I am open to it,” Clinton replied, if it would help the party’s prospects in November.

AP has been virtually alone with a wave of stories about Clinton quitting the race, Obama somehow clinching the nomination based on secret delegates, and the like. Either they’ll prove prescient or have egg on their face very soon.

Photo: The Atlantic

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Spoker says:

    Of course she is open to it. If she can’t be # one, she wants to be just one heartbeat away. (As she so delicately put it ‘remember 1968’)

    BHO’s big problem is the Clinton’s come as a pair. What is BHO going to do, provide entertainment for Bill to keep him out of town?

  2. legion says:

    Pardon me while I catch my breath from laughing so hard. The Republicans are already putting together ads showing her criticizing Obama. But just like she’s the last one on the planet to realize she can’t win the nomination, she’ll be the last one to realize that heron the ticket would be Obama’s single biggest weakness.

  3. Michael says:

    It’s a pretty big leap to get from

    Clinton, a New York senator, said she was willing to become Obama’s vice presidential nominee if it would help Democrats win the White House… in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez

    to

    Hillary Clinton desperately wants to be on the ticket, even if it’s in the number 2 slot

  4. rodney dill says:

    she’ll be the last one to realize that heron the ticket would be Obama’s single biggest weakness.

    I pretty much agree with that, but the spin doctors will be working overtime to paint it as ‘Hillary singlehandedly saves the Demo Party’ by discontinuing her compaign.

  5. Evil Pundit says:

    Well, you never know what might happen.

  6. Kevin Colby says:

    Of course Hillary wants to be back in the White House any way she can. We saw she didn’t always play nice during the campaign because she was so driven to be President.

    I just don’t know after all that how they can work together.

  7. Fence says:

    Hillary doesn’t want to be the VP nominee. She wants Obama to lose to McCain so she can run in 2012. That’s why she is still in the race that was impossible for her to win as of late February. She knows Obama won’t pick her (he can’t even if he wanted to); but she knows that she will make it even harder for Obama to win back her supporters when she creates expectations she should be and could be the #2 and then gets rejected. And she times it to muck up the press coverage of Obama’s big night.

    I think she also forces Obama to pick his #2 sooner rather than later to put this talk to an end. One question is whether her stunts have backed Obama into needing to pick a woman (a different one), when what he really needs is someone with foreign policy gravitas. I hate to suggest that those two don’t overlap, but no one comes to mind who fits both.

    I wrote this before watching her speech and then figured I’d watch it to see if there was any sign I was wrong. Nope, she congratulated Obama the way winners salute losers, claimed she won more votes, explained why Obama isn’t ready, and then still won’t back out even though it’s over. And that’s because it isn’t. Iowa 2012 is still more than fifty months away. Ugh.

  8. yetanotherjohn says:

    I would want to have a life insurance policy on Obama if Hillary is in the VP slot. Better pay off odds than vegas.

  9. rodney dill says:

    At least the planning portion of Hillary’s campaign is still in high gear. They are very carefully coaching their words. Hillary concedes the delegate count, but apparently not the nomination. It could be just a delay tactic to weigh their options, but more likely they are planning something of a challenge against the primary rules or an appeal to the superdelegates. Don’t forget — Its all about Hillary.

  10. Michael says:

    If Obama’s campaign is really smart, they’ll put Hillary of his VP selection committee, so while she will not be VP, she will be involved in selecting the VP, making him or her at least slightly more acceptable to Hillary’s supporters.

  11. rodney dill says:

    …and if he’s really smart he’ll make Hillary his Milton Waddams

  12. Brian says:

    What “remaining leverage?”

  13. James Joyner says:

    What “remaining leverage?”

    She presumably has the ability to keep quite a few of her partisans angry at Obama.