Since late February, it was fairly clear that Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination. Now that it is a reality for everyone (except maybe Hillary who has yet to concede). So what is Hillary waiting for? There is speculation that she wants the vice presidential slot or that she is looking for her supporters (and the Obama campaign) to help her with her debt.
Regardless of what she wants, what does Obama want? Should he offer the vice presidency to Hillary? Offering the ultimate olive branch to Hillary would theoretically help reunite the party and bring in all of her voters — especially female voters. But why should Obama be the one with the sole burden of offering olive branches and reuniting the party? Obama has been much more gracious than what the Clinton camp has admitted, and I doubt that any impartial observer would deny that Hillary has run a much nastier campaign, at times shockingly so.
But does Obama really need Hillary to win? Here are a few reasons why Obama should not choose Hillary as his running mate:
- The danger of picking a vice president who covets your job above all else. Figure in the RFK comments and Billary’s stop at nothing tactics and failure to concede, and you kind of wonder.
- The Clintons have more to lose by not doing their best to unify the party.
- Although at times Hillary’s numbers show her leading McCain in national polls, polls consistently and uniformly indicate that a majority of Americans do not like or trust Hillary. More than any other factor or issue, Hillary unifies the Republicans. Such divisiveness is not good for the country.
- Bill. Do you really want Bill hanging around, helping out, making rouge statements? Obama has learned his lesson from Wright about people you cannot control. Bill is a loose canon.
- Obama’s message of change requires leaving the past behind, and Hillary and Bill are part of the past.
- Obama doesn’t need Hillary to win women voters. All he needs to do is say that he will not put anyone on the Court who is against a woman’s right to choose. When women learn about McCain’s position, it will be history for McCain.
- Yielding to pressure from the Hillary camp would make Obama look weak. Obama should show his independence and sovereignty.
Grave Error 
You make some good points, but remember that you have already chosen to support Obama. Many of us voted for Hillary, and we’re not going to support him “just because” we’re told to. He has to earn our votes. You may not like Hillary, but your guy won, so why not appease those of us who do like her and put her on the ticket? He won the primary, but he needs our votes to win the presidency.
Thanks “i heart Hillary”. I see your point, but I think part of it has to do with the fact that in order for Hillary to stay in the race, she really needed to convince her people that Obama as somehow fatally flawed as a candidate — psychologically making it more difficult for her supporters to immediately go over to Democrat’s nominee. But, I do believe that inevitably there is little choice but to support Obama.
Finally, I think that there is another important argument which is that Hillary simply has not shown any respect for Obama in the past few months, and definitely not so since Tuesday. And it isn’t me, an Obama supporter saying so, but many others out there. Why should Obama be holding out the olive branch to Hillary when she won’t even concede? It is strange and disrespectful.
Then she said in a conference call that she would be willing to be Obama’s VP. Sounds like ransom to me.
I agree that he needs to give her something very important, but rewarding the sore loser with the VP is a bit beyond me, unless you can really make the argument that it is positive.
Check out Hillary support Hillary Rosen’s piece:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/i-am-not-a-bargaining-chi_b_105133.html
“She said she was stepping back to think about her options. She is waiting to figure out how she would “use” her 18 million voters.
But not my vote. I will enthusiastically support Barack Obama’s campaign. Because I am not a bargaining chip. I am a Democrat.”