Politico.com asks "Could Clinton have Palin-proofed Dems"?
The short answer in my estimation is "yes". I don't mean that Hillary would have counteracted Palin's appeal to women. Rather, I mean that if Obama had chosen Senator Clinton as his running mate that McCain would never have chosen Governor Plain as his VP in the first place.
When Obama made the safe choice in running mate of an old school Washington insider and most importantly, a white male, the door was left open for McCain to choose a game changer such as a woman or a minority. Palin, at this moment, is looking to be just such a game changer. Had Obama chosen Hillary to run with him, the obvious alternative for McCain would have been to choose someone safer such as Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney.
The short answer in my estimation is "yes". I don't mean that Hillary would have counteracted Palin's appeal to women. Rather, I mean that if Obama had chosen Senator Clinton as his running mate that McCain would never have chosen Governor Plain as his VP in the first place.
When Obama made the safe choice in running mate of an old school Washington insider and most importantly, a white male, the door was left open for McCain to choose a game changer such as a woman or a minority. Palin, at this moment, is looking to be just such a game changer. Had Obama chosen Hillary to run with him, the obvious alternative for McCain would have been to choose someone safer such as Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney.
I don't blame Obama for not choosing Hillary. Having both Bill and Hillary at the forefront of the campaign most assuredly would have been a distraction. Further, I still maintain that there would have been no better way to maximize Republican turnout than to add Senator Clinton to the Democratic ticket. If Obama loses, the second guessing of this decision will linger for years. That said I still think he did the right thing in picking Biden.
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