by Damozel | Now that the dust has had time to settle (well, some of it), Al Gore is making a debut campaign appearance with Obama and --- in a break with precendent --- has asked supporters of AlGore.com to contribute to the Obama campaign. Ya'll know I love Al, and I can't say no to anything he asks of me, so I guess the time has come. It was bound to come sooner or later. After all: I want the Dem to win, simple as that. From The Caucus:
“Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis,” Mr. Gore said. “Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.”
Obama thus receives the Environmentalist-in-Chief's endorsement. Let's hope he is prepared to deserve it.
In other news, Patti Solis Doyle, whom the Clinton campaign booted out at what some thought was a badly chosen moment in the campaign, has signed on with Obama. (The Caucus) She'll be chief of staff to the vice presidential candidate, whoever that may be.
Hmmm. Adam Nagourney speculates:
Ms. Doyle will take the position before Mr. Obama announces his choice for a running-mate – he has not said when that will be. Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Doyle have a long friendship, and Ms. Doyle has long been one of her closest aides, until she was forced out. Could that mean – tea-leaf reading time – that Mr. Obama is really considering Mrs. Clinton for the No. 2 position, and wants to have an ally of her in place to ease the way? Perhaps.
Or perhaps not. More likely, the Obama campaign was looking for a high-profile spot to put Ms. Doyle, given her previous position, and most of the major roles in Mr. Obama’s campaign are filled.
I'd have guessed 'not.' After all: 'forced out.' I guess I'm naive. I thought that ship had already sailed But I don't pretend to understand the thinking of politicos.
Speaking of which, Ben Smith writes:
Though this will stir speculation that she's paving the way for Hillary, but it actually makes me think the opposite. Clinton fired her in February, and many of her backers view Solis Doyle as a bit of a traitor for having signaled that she'd move to Obama before the primary was over.
But she adds a prominent female, Hispanic face to Obama's senior staff, and has a major role, if an ambiguous one: It's not exactly inside the Obama inner circle, and a running mate may also want to bring in his or her own people. (Politico)
Steven Benen too thinks that her hire means the chance of an Obama/Clinton ticket have become even more remote.
As for how this relates to Clinton possibly joining the ticket, I’ve seen ample speculation that this makes an Obama/Clinton ticket more likely, but I’m very much inclined to believe the opposite...if the goal of the Obama campaign was to have a Clinton ally in place to “ease” the transition, the very last person they’d pick is Patti Solis Doyle.
For that matter, I thought initially that maybe this could be spun as a “unity” move — the Obama campaign has placed Clinton’s former campaign manager in a prominent position. See? We can all get along!
Except, that doesn’t quite work here, either. Obama won’t get credit for hiring a top Clinton aide who Clinton no longer talks to. As Ben Smith noted, “many” Clinton backers “view Solis Doyle as a bit of a traitor for having signaled that she’d move to Obama before the primary was over.”
I don't view her as a traitor --- after all, Clinton ousted her --- but if I had to speculate, I'd say that this is more along the lines of a 'slap in the face.' I tried to work out how I feel about it and then gave up. As Benen says, only the party insiders know the reasons. I don't think it was a particularly wise move, given the still white-hot anger of many of Hillary's supporters, but Obama and his people have signified in various ways that they don't much care about her supporters.
I hope they won't live to regret that attitude, but I fear they will. Let's hope they've time to make amends.
But what do I know about it? Nothing.
Wonkette gets the last word on PSD's move to Obamaland.
You might remember [Patti Solis Doyle] for driving the Clinton campaign into a ditch with her bazillion-dollar donut budget, megawatt smile, and general air of failure. Now she’ll bring that same magic to Generation Obama as the chief of staff to the yet-to-be-named VP candidate: a person whose name is almost certain not to rhyme with “Zillary Blinton.”
With Solis Doyle running the VP team, there’s pretty much no way her ex-friend Hillary will join Obama’s ticket, even if asked, which she won’t be.
Our girl Patti probably got the job because she is old pals with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel and every other Democratic politician from Chicago. Plus there are only so many competent people you can have on a team, and Obama’s was pretty much full up.
I don't particularly want to see Hillary as Obama's VP, so I don't really care one way or another. This New York Magazine article --- What Hillary Clinton Won by Losing --- points out that her long hard fight has given her not only iconic stature but also made her into a feminist hero. I'd like to see her return to the Senate, where --- with Obama as president --- she can implement the legislative reforms we so desperately need.
For all the talk of her trying to muscle her way onto the ticket, one senses in her a genuine ambivalence about whether she wants the job. If Obama does offer it, however, she will have no choice but to take it. She is all too aware that if she turned it down and he lost this fall, she would be blamed even more loudly than she will be already, even though in her view his downfall is foreordained, and has nothing to do with her.
If the call doesn’t come from Obama, Clinton will return to the Senate—where, in many ways, she will instantly become the first among equals. “She’ll be greatly, greatly enhanced,” says former senator Bob Kerrey. “She’ll have the most valuable e-mail list in the Senate. She’ll be the most heavily sought out person in the Congress as an endorser, a fund-raiser. Everybody is gonna want to have her come and campaign for them. She’s gonna be at the very top of everybody’s list.”
Clinton tells me she has no qualms about returning to the Senate. “I think I’m both more prepared and more impatient than I was before,” she says. “And I’m even more committed to the agenda we laid out.” At the top of that agenda, of course, is universal health care, an issue on which Clinton would almost certainly take the lead if Obama is in the White House, giving at once a shot at a place in history and a chance to redeem herself after her searing failure in 1993 and 1994. (NYM; emphasis added)
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Posted by: Joseph Culligan | June 16, 2008 at 07:32 PM
that was the weirdest endorsment I have ever seen. plain strange. I love me some Al Gore too - but he went over the line tonight as a deep in the shit democrat while in Michigan he said "we made a choice" refering to the democratic party?! No we didn't - they fucking stole it! I'm so disapointed. Whatever not going to get me down. I have my intentions set and it's not to vote or give money to Obama - Go ahead and waste your's though Damozel. It sure looks neat on camera for Obama and Gore to be at a stadium with thousands of supporters - But looks are decieveing - that guy is a sure loser.
By the way I don't think there is one thing wrong with emotion or showing it. It's how I live, passionatley! Like it or not. I think more people should live passionatley and show emotion this country might not be the big mess that it is.
Posted by: Danny | June 17, 2008 at 12:14 AM
"""Just a little 2004 quote for any Hillary Supporters hesitant to vote for McCain in Protest.
The DNC Luvvvved McCain So Much They Wanted Him To Be Kerry’s Running Mate for VP.
(Snip)
Despite weeks of steadfast rejections from Senator John McCain, some prominent Democrats are angling for him to run for vice president alongside Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, creating a bipartisan ticket that they say would instantly transform the presidential race.
The enthusiasm of Democrats for Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, is so high that even some who have been mentioned as possible Kerry running mates — including Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator — are spinning scenarios about a ”unity government,” effectively giving Mr. Kerry a green light to reach across the political aisle and extend an offer.
… Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who once worked for Mr. Kerry, said such a ticket ”would be the political equivalent of the Yankees signing A-Rod,” referring to Alex Rodriguez, the team’s star third baseman.
Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, ”continues to be interested in” Mr. McCain, a fellow Vietnam veteran whom Kerry aides describe as the candidate’s best friend in the Senate, as a running mate, said one longtime Democratic official who works for the Kerry campaign.
New York Times, May 15, 2004
Hear that? McCain is John Kerry’s BEST FRIEND IN THE SENATE!
If McCain is good enough for Kerry he’s good enough for my protest vote in November.
PASS IT ON!"""
Posted by: Danny | June 17, 2008 at 12:37 AM