aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Veep speculation. And mine.

On The Chris Matthews Show last weekend, the “Big Question” asked of panelists to close the show was, “Can Hillary and Barack ever burry the hatchet and be on the same ticket.”

The assumption behind the answers put Obama in the second spot. I guess the world knows there’s no way Hillary will be VP. This is her last shot at President. She was good in the Senate; she likes the Senate; she’ll go back to the Senate.

The declarative answer to Matthews’ question from John Heilemann, whose New York Magazine piece on the two Democratic front-runners, The Test, I quoted earlier in the week:

He would say yes. He wants to be president of the United States and the best way to be president is to be the vice president. And it will also reduce all of the race questions. I mean nothing would make him more palatable to white Americans than watching him serve by her side for 8 years in the White House.

I said to a friend this week that I’m expecting Barack is our next president. And John Edwards VP. I dont know why I haven’t seen that said before. I expect now that he’s made his honorable exit we’ll here more of it.

Another way for Obama to reduce the race question is to put a Southern white male on the ticket. (And one who appeals to moderate-to-conservative white men to boot!)

Hillary has been through rough stuff before. She has shown that she can come back from it. If she looses she’ll come back from this. I don’t accept that she’ll stop at nothing and fight dirty. She’s too smart.

Anyway, dirty is in the eye of the beholder. I see misogyny and tired old anti-Clintonism in that assessment. I will be interested to read the analysis looking back a year and more from now. There’s a difference between tough and dirty; the only way to see that difference is from some distance.

For now I’m thinking the bruising South Carolina contest has taught her something. And so, if she doesn’t win a declarative victory on Super Tuesday, I think she gets out. How will be tricky. As a woman, the whole emphasis had to be on demonstrating strength. How to get out but not wimp out? She’s trained long and hard for this. It will be difficult to cool down and get out. She’ll do it if she must.

My support for Hillary is growing stronger. I’ll vote for her next week, knowing that Obamamania is real. And contagious. And I won’t be able to brag that I was one of those who made it real. If I were younger there’s no doubt I’d be on that boat. My support for Hillary is rooted in what I see as my pragmatic realism. Not nearly so glitzy as hope.

I tell the students that it’s a tough world and they’re taking the reigns and will have the opportunity to change it. That from great challenges come great advances. That I have great faith that they will do great things.

I am among those who like the notion of 16 years of Democratic victories; 8 years of a woman president, then 8 of an African American. If Obama comes first, so be it. I and, I have no doubt, Hillary, too, will fervently support him.