It’s not the Democrats sliming her, it’s the media that’s pissed of at McCain for 1) surprising them with a choice for which they weren’t prepared, and 2) following up that surprise with a lot of very demonstrable lies. McCain’s biggest strategic error this week has been turning the media against him when they were formerly very in love with the “maverick” image they co-created.
Palin was a gamble, and so far it’s paid off–lots of attention, lots of rousing the base, almost no press for Obama despite some big speeches and appearances. The problem with this gamble is that McCain has to ride it out–he can’t pull his chips off the table now, and Palin is, along with McCain, becoming the target of a hostile media that’s basically said “enough with the bullshit lies and half-truths”. The media went from giving them the benefit of the doubt on their spin, to actively dissecting it.
What does this have to do with Biden? The media is busily tearing McCain/Palin apart now; the smartest thing for Obama to do is keep quiet and let that happen. Switching Biden out now, no matter how artfully done, looks like fear of Palin and draws a bloodthirsty media’s attention back onto him.
Even granting arguendo that Clinton was a better choice than Biden, the costs of trying to switch are way too high now.
All of the problems with HRC as a VP pick still remain
Joe Biden has done nothing wrong and is getting in good jabs
It would make the campaign seem desperate to get in on the Palin action
Really if Obama swapped Biden for Hillary it would mean weakness, pure and simple. Joe Biden is a pretty awesome VP pick, in my opinion. Hillary is also above it, it seems.
I like your take on the media hansel and I agree. I think the best Obama can do now is try to fight the bullshit that McCain throws his way, but not to touch Palin.
Is anyone outside of the farout right suggesting anything like Biden will step down? They seem to want to play up some “gaffes” that really seem like weak tea to me. If anything, Biden’s been kind of out of the news. I don’t follow the strategic thinking of these people, and their observations seem divorced from any sort of reality.
I remember in 1972, I was trying to encourage a friend to vote for McGovern. His response was that he couldn’t get past the replacement of Tom Eagleton as his running mate.
Regardless of the reasons behind any replacement of an able-bodied running mate, I have the sense that the mere fact of any replacement on either side would be a turn-off for a large number of voters.
ETA:
I agree with this. In fact, I think it might be best for the Good Guys (that’s the Dems, for those of you playing along at home) to ignore her completely. Just announce that Biden will show up for a VP debate when McCain gives us a qualified second stringer to debate against, and not before. After that, not another word about her.
The problem with that is that there’s no cross over between Hillary supporters and Palin supporters. A woman who thinks Palin is the greatest also thinks Hillary’s the anti-christ, and vice versa. So picking Hillary as VP now not only has all the negative connotations (poor judgment, no follow through, etc.) with respect to dumping Biden, but it also won’t bring additional people into the fold. So while I agree that Hillary could take Palin out in a debate, she wouldn’t win Obama any additional supporters. Biden does come across as an intellectual, and I think that’s a fine counterpoint to Palin’s “gee, shucks, I’m just a simple hockey mom” approach.
Also, what Stranger wrote is true; Hillary wouldn’t accept the consolation prize. She’s happier staying out of an Obama campaign/administration, and being in an “I told you so” position later.
Similarly, had Hillary been the nominee, Obama wouldn’t have accepted the VP spot (nor would she have offered it).
Is that person on Daily Kos somehow representative of all Democrats? Somehow an official of the party, or Obama’s campaign? No, it’s a single lefty diarist on a lefty community site.
I’ll grant you that quite a few on the left side of the blogosphere jumped into the anti-Palin fray. The point remains that it was the blogosphere and the media–not the Democratic party, not Obama or his surrogates, not his campaign spokespeople–who went after Palin with such viciousness. The Obama campaign said little, and when it did it was to explicitly say that family should be off limits. Obama is smartly letting the media (and the blogosphere) do his work for him.
Biden’s not going anywhere. Dropping a VP is suicide, plain and simple. Obama would have to be doing VERY poorly drop Biden.
Put it this way. Imagine Biden is not the optimal VP pick. We can’t really know because we don’t have access to the alternate dimensions where it is the case, but let’s just assume that if Hillary would actually help Obama more than Biden. The act of dropping Biden to pick up HRC would nullify any potential advantage she could bring to the ticket.
I agree in the sense that I keep hearing people say this is the dirtiest, most passionate election they’ve ever seen. Are people’s memories really that short? Oh-four was nasty. The ads were dirtier, the swiftboaters were out in full force, and the Right was still pushing major arguments in favor of the Iraq war. This election is weak sauce. Hardly anybody I know offline is talking about it, and I’m still not seeing signs and bumper stickers.
I’d vote for a third party candidate, rather than a ticket with HRC on it. I changed my party affiliation as much so that I could vote against her, as for Obama in the primary. Obama can’t run on a change platform with “more of the same” as his VP pick.
I said it before Obama picked Biden and I’ll say it now. HRC as VP might help Obama win the election, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory as she would make it harder to govern. I believe she would push for as much if not more power in the administration than Cheney.
Well it would be desperate and unprincipled … but he could get away with it. Those in the media that support him would quickly switch from the obligatory “desperate and unprincipled” storyline to a more nuanced study of the move.
As to how it could be done… can’t you see the three of them standing at a podium explaining how those rascally Republicans made a cynical choice of an unqualified woman who would take the Women’s Movement back to the Stone Age. They would explain that HRC is needed on the ticket to combat this and that Joe will be the Secretary of State… an equaly important role in this age where we are hated in the world.
The only issue is why Hillary would want to help Obama win. I’m sure she could be convinced that her political career would be actively destroyed by the Obama camp if she didn’t do it.
She would then realize that the ball would be in her court to either contribute behind the scenes to an Obama loss or a failed first term.