NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
You took the bait! WHY?!?!?
Unless you think Tom Daschle was freelancing while in Meet the Press. [Which would not be the first time an Obama surrogate went off the reservation. But unlike Samantha Power or Austin Gooslby, Tom Daschle is a seasoned politcal veteran].
The Clintons were floating the whole "Obama would make agreat Vice President" shtick because Hillary knows her harsh campaigning in Ohio and Texas pissed off a lot of Obama supporters, and she will need to bring the party together if she is the nominee. The only way to do that (in their minds) is to put Obama on the ticket.
It also, they hope, blunts some of the resentment by giving Obama supporters at least the idea that Obama can run again in the future as VP -- or even in 2012 if Hillary goes down in flames.
Until Sunday, the Obama campaign had the correct reaction: He's not going to be VP. Period.
That effectively shoots down the whole argument, and blunts the force of the belittling criticism.
But, instead of leaving it at that, Tom Daschle says that Hillary as VP would be a great thing possibility!
But this also plays right into Hillary's hands, don't you see? She was baiting Obama to say something like that, because she wants to be on the ticket no matter what. She'll take what she can get, at this point.
More importantly, she wanted Obama to send a signal that all of her harsh attacks on him were "forgiven and forgotten." By floating the possibility of an Obama/Clinton ticket, you basically say to all of the angry Obama supporters: "No harm no foul." It's stupid!
Obama should have said that Hillary was on his VP short list until she decided to campaign in a harsh, dishonest way, and engage in the very same politics he is trying to change in Washington. Now, he does not see how he can put her on the ticket with him and still retain any credibility for what he is trying to accomplish.
That would have reinforced the meme that Hillary is a ruthless, ambition-filled politico who cares more about getting elected than in helping the party or the country. It also would have put her in her place as the runner up who is trying to come from behind to win -- rather than the frontrunner. i.e. as a Loser.
I have been very impressed, for the most part, in the way the Obama campaign has been run thus far. With one glaring exception. They have done a very poor job of keeping their surrogates on message and on point. To a certain extent, this is due to the relative inexperience of Obama's non-political campaign advisors. But, how do you explain Tom Daschle? Either he was saying something that was authorized at the highest levels of the campaign (which would be a sign of a major political miscalculation), or he was throwing that out there on his own, thinking it would be approved by the campaign.
I happen to believe it was the former. You don't float that kind of trial ballooon without first making sure it is OK with Barack Obama himself. And, Tom Daschle is not the kind of surrogate who would go out on a limb like that.
Here is one line of attack, incidentally, taht the Obama people need to make. Point out that Hillary's claim of "35 years of experience" iuncludes her disasterous attempt to reform our nation's health caare system. The one aspect of her time as First lady that we now she had a hand in making policy, and she screwed it up be being too secretive, arrogant, and not forthcoming with members of her own party in the Congress.
HIllary will claim, and has claimed, that she "learned" from that experience. But, Obama can then ask how can we trust that she has learned when she is making the same mistakes now, by not releasing her tax returns, or fulling disclosing her records as First Lady. She's doing the same thing now as she was doing then.
This line of attack, I think would cripple Hillary's campaign. It takes her one claim of superiority to Obama, and turns it against her. It also ties in her failure to disclose her records, and raises the spector of more Clinton scandals without going into Ken Starr territory. It also contradicts the perception that Obama is not tough enough to fight back. It is a completely legitimate and above board attack on Hillary, but also a devestaingly effective one.
Too bad no one in the Obama campaign will ever use it.
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