Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Presidential Troika: Barack, Hillary, Bill

Let's make a major effort to support Republican congressional candidate Dana Walsh. I am going to put up on every blog (and I have a bunch) an appeal to send a contribution to Ms. Walsh. She's pro-military and running against Cindy Sheehan and Nancy Pelosi, "the witches of the West." I hope a whole lot of people online will feature Dana Walsh at: http://danawalshforcongress.com. Her web site is terrific. It has pics of Sheehan and Pelosi playing huggy-bear with dictators (Chavez and Assad). Please contribute what you can to this courageous woman.

I put up late Tuesday columns on: (1) the Pennsylvania blog about a new, unified, national effort to elect Republican candidates; (2) the Hillary Supporters for McCain blog about the Obama campaign and its surrogates "sliming" (Bill Clinton's word) Mrs. Clinton. If you're a "mom," you'll want to take a look at Jean Avery's blog: http://moms4mccain.blogspot.com/. (On the Hillary Supporters site, I have a picture of Bill's supposed girlfriend (Gina Gershon), as well as a quote from a friend in Ambridge, who said, "As Bill gets older, the girlfriends get better looking." Can't quarrel with that.)


The pundits last night didn't really "interpret" Mrs. Clinton's "concession speech" (more properly, her "non-concession speech"). Instead, they mainly had a befuddled look on their faces. Some wondered if she was not perhaps launching the first shot in the 2012 campaign for the presidency.


I suggested that the next presidential election -- the one after this year's -- might end up pitting Senator Clinton on the Democratic side against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the Republicans. (In this scenario, President John McCain would have -- as we said in business -- "elected to take early retirement."


Of course, the major question the Senator left is whether she wants the vice presidential nod. David Gergen suggested that Mrs. Clinton seemed to be indicating that she wanted Senator Obama to agree to some sort of "coalition" government -- or perhaps a co-presidency. On that point, what about a "troika," that would have three equal parts: Barack, Hillary, and -- of course -- Bill?


The problem with Hillary as a vice-presidential nominee is this: she has supplied the Republicans with all sorts of ammunition. Famously, she once said, "I have a lifetime of experience; Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience; Senator Obama has a speech [against the Iraq War] that he delivered in 2002." When Obama runs against McCain, he will hear those words used in ads -- again and again and again.


Mrs. Clinton's slogan in her campaign was "Ready on Day 1." She has implied that John McCain would also be ready to serve as President on Day 1. Of course, her words mean that Obama would NOT be ready. If she thought the Illinois Senator had the appropriate readiness (and as Prince Hamlet said, "The readiness is all"), then her slogan would have made no sense.


Bill Clinton said on June 2 that the Obama campaign was "sliming" his wife. Again, if Hillary Clinton accepts (the proper word may be "seizes") the vice-presidential nod, Bill Clinton's words just might ring throughout the fall campaign. The former President indicated that Obama is relying on "surrogates" to hurl mud at his wife.

Are Hillary and Bill Clinton really ready to mend fences with Obama?


Are they willing to say, in essence, "all is forgiven, Barack. We really didn't mean all those nasty things we said about you." Is this to be a ticket that contains a undertone of the following: "It's true that I said Barack wouldn't be ready on day 1; however, since he will have me with him (in the White House? perhaps the Lincoln Bedroom?), he won't have to worry about not being quite ready. He'll have my 'help.'"


And what would the presence of Mrs. Clinton on the ticket do to Obama's seminal message of change? In fact, the "Billary" triplex would be a continuing reminder of the ghosts of American politics past. Barack would learn that it's impossible to fire a vice-president (or a former President).


For Senator McCain, campaigning against an Obama-Clinton team might not be the daunting task it appears to be yesterday. The Republican message -- one of them -- is going to highlight Obama's unsuitability for the highest office. And the main "spokesperson" for that position might not be John McCain, but rather Hillary Clinton -- with occasional assists from her husband.


Let the games begin!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

After watching both McCain's and Obama's speeches on TV Tuesday night, McCain no less than NEEDS to run Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his VP mate.

Tym_Machine said...

Hi Stephen,

I published an interesting post on my blog:

http://tymmachine.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-makes-history-as-black-manreally.html

If you want to comment it, you are more than welcomed to do so.

Maybe we'll get lots of Canadians to cheer up for John McCain.

BTW, I was cheering for John Kerry in 2004 and he lost under the hands of the not so popular but very charismatic Georges W Bush. Do you really think Obama can win over McCain?

Regards,

Tym Machine

Stephen R. Maloney said...

Tym, I think it's extremely important to get as many Canadian onliners and others backing John McCain. The race has been "internationalized," with people all over the world weighing in on the contest. I don't know that a lot of people would call GWB "charismatic," but he did run a great race in 2004. I'll come visit your blog. Tell all the Canadians to come visit me -- many already do.

steve maloney
ambridge, pa

Tym_Machine said...

I just did in my bilingual post in a quest for finding McCain canadian supporters, so far no one has posted comments but I get around 30 people per day visiting my web site and 10 faithful ones I would say. My best day was around 60 people but my focus is on the long term and I focus more on quality than quantity.

http://tymmachine.blogspot.com/2008/06/appels-aux-supporteurs-de-john-mccain.html

Stephen R. Maloney said...

Tym, it will take some time to build your base of visitors, but if you stick to it, they will come. Maybe you can establish your site as THE French-English site for Canadian citizens supporting John McCain. I'll do my best to make people aware that your site exists. I believe there will be a big international effort on behalf of McCain, with groups in Canada, Australian, United Kingdom, Brazil, India, and many other places.

steve maloney
ambridge, pa

Tym_Machine said...

@Stephen,

There should be lots of international McCain supporter, the election of Obama would not only be catastrophic for the USA and Canada but for the rest of the world as well.

Regards,

Tym Machine

PS: If you check out www.droitiste.com, you'll see a few blogs that have the logo of John McCain, even though they are most of them written in French, you could try to get a hold of a few of them at the risk of being considered a spammer but who doesn't take risks stays home and do nothing.

Regards,

TM