By continuing to campaign despite virtually insurmountable odds, Hillary Clinton has prompted speculation that she is trying to force Barack Obama to put her on the Democratic ticket as his running mate.
Clinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, who is promoting the idea through campaign back channels, recently called a joint ticket “pretty exciting.”
“It’s a great idea at the end of this process for us all to be together. I do get excited about the possibility of having Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton crisscrossing this country in the fall of 2008,” McAuliffe told Sirius Satellite Radio, saying he was speaking as a former head of the Democratic National Committee.
Obama’s campaign refused to comment on Clinton’s vice presidential aspirations, but it’s no secret that Obama wants to pick his own person for the No. 2 spot — and that given his druthers he would not choose Clinton.
“Highly unlikely,” a veteran Democratic campaign strategist said Wednesday. “You have a candidate running all about change and the future. It complicates the message to have one of the most prominent symbols of the 1990s on the ticket.”
Without an invitation from Obama, Clinton would have to create enough leverage to force his hand.
Don’t rule out that scenario, said Democratic strategist Bob Beckel, who was campaign manager for Walter Mondale.
Beckel envisions Bill Clinton, who has also promoted his wife as Obama’s VP pick, calling up Obama superdelegates and persuading manyof them to vote to put her on the ticket at the convention in Denver.
“There are an awful lot of these people who worked for the Clinton administration and owe him their jobs,” Beckel said. “If Clinton wanted it badly enough, it’s an easy way to get your politics straightened out with the Clintons and justify it by saying it’s a good idea.”
Beckel says he has talked to a dozen superdelegates who would acquiesce to such a request from Bill Clinton.
“This is the closest second-place nominee in recent modern history,” Beckel said. “You have to take that into account.”
Although it is true the convention delegates, nearly half of whom will be pledged to Clinton, will have a vote on the vice presidential pick, Obama could diminish their role by choosing his running mate well before the August convention and using the intervening weeks to build support for his pick.
Clinton has not indicated whether she would accept the vice presidential nomination, even though supporters such as Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Charles Schumer and Rep. Charles Rangel are promoting the idea.
Clinton and her campaign aides insist she is still running for president.
“We believe there is a path to the nomination and we are following it,” top campaign aide Howard Wolfson said Wednesday.
