It Ain't About Citrus

Below is a link to an op-ed piece from earlier in the month in which Bill Keller pushes a very interesting idea. He points out that the idea isn't original with him, that it has been kicking around in certain circles for a year or so, but he argues that it is time to take it seriously...even though he concedes it probably won't be.

In brief it goes like this: Hilary Clinton resigns her post as Secretary of State, and Obama appoints Joe Biden to serve there simultaneously with his position as VP. Then Obama chooses Clinton as his running mate for November. After his re-election (which would be much more certain with Clinton on the ticket), Biden stays on at State. It helps ensure Obama's reelection and it gives Clinton a good platform from which to launch her own presidential campaign in 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/opinion/keller-just-the-ticket.html?scp=1&sq=hilary%20clinton%20for%20vice%20president&st=cse

Of course, as Keller notes, it isn't likely to happen, but it is tantalizing.

I just read an article in the Jan. 9th issue of The New Yorker about Marco Rubio of Florida, which makes the Clinton scenario more tantalizing, maybe almost a necessity. The author cites a lot of important Republicans who think Rubio is the party's ideal VP nominee because, the theory goes, he will help the Republicans with the Latino vote, and with the crucial state of Florida. (I wonder if, after the Palin experience, the party will try to have more influence with the presidential nominee's choice of a running mate. When you think about it, it's fairly absurd to leave it up to the nominee. I know it hasn't always been the prerogative of the nominee, but I don't know when it became so.)

If the candidates are Romney and Obama, I can see a lot of voter attention to the VP nominees. Romney is never going to inspire enthusiasm and Obama is not going to generate the kind of excitement he did in 2008. In that scenario the VP candidates are going to be more important than they've been in years, and the Democrats should want their best, and that is Hilary.

Of course Romney isn't a certainty, I know. The Republicans might still shoot themselves in the foot and pick Gingrich and you know Obama hopes they do. Barney Frank said something to the effect that "I never knew I lived such a good life that I would live to see the Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich."

I just made a Freudian typo, and maybe I shouldn't have corrected it. I think the name of that party of loonies should be the RepubliCONS, for obvious reasons.