I keep getting told that Hillary would never accept the Vice Presidential nomination, because it has no power except what the President allows it to have, someone finally explained to me.
I keep getting told that Bernie has great ideas but if he is nominated for President, Bernie will never win.
It seems to me that the solution is obvious. All you folks that are Hillary supporters, and all you folks that are Bernie supporters may have a huge selling job, not just selling your candidate to the people, but even more important, selling the candidates on each other.
The President needs to be the one who has the right ideas, because he or she is the one who gets the dread 3:00 am phone call, whatever time of the day or night that it comes, and frankly, when Hillary talked about that in 2008 I redoubled my efforts for Obama, small though they were, because well I still do not trust her to not over-react. So much as I would love to see a woman as President, and at age 64 even if I live another 30 years if it is not Hillary it may not happen in my lifetime, I love my country more than I love the idea of seeing a woman President. Hillary is so scared of seeming weak that she over-reacts to aggressive posturing, which is at least as dangerous as seeming weak. Hillary comes closer than any woman candidate that I have seen for President, but she is not there yet. Hillary has the party support and she has the campaign machine, but she does not have the steady wisdom to be the calm firm decisive but restrained leader that our country needs in dangerous times like the ones we live in.
Bernie has the right ideas, and the courage to speak them even when they are outside conventional wisdom. He is strong, and he is calm even when it seems like the Senate is 99 to 1 against him. Bernie is not afraid to march to the drummer he hears, however loud the rest of the band plays. That I believe is an essential element in a President. Bernie can compromise to get legislation passed, but he does not compromise what he believes.
But I understand that getting Bernie nominated against Hillary is going to be an uphill battle. She has the organization and the party support, and it was almost enough against Barack Obama who did a world class job of organizing a grass roots campaign. Hillary learned from Obama, and apparently Obama has passed on much of his grass roots support to Hillary, if Hillary supporters are telling the truth. So winning the nomination against Hillary this time will take even more of a miracle than it did eight years ago, which is a shame, because Hillary is even more out of touch than she was eight years ago, if anything. She got to be Secretary of State for four years, playing at running the State Department, which she imagined is a position of greater power than being Vice President. This shows how delusional Hillary Clinton still is, by the way. I understand that the President decides what the Vice President can officially do, except of course breaking ties in the House, which is mandated by the Constitution. On the other hand, the Secretary of State serves at the will of the President, so guess who also decides what the Secretary of State can do? Right? And no need to be subtle about it. The buck stops at the same place. So if Hillary is willing to accept delegated power as SoS, why not accept delegated power as VP?
Of course, some Presidents have openly made their contempt for their Vice President known, damaging some people's concept of the position. But other Presidents have quietly accepted resignations from cabinet members and replaced them. Some Presidents have given the Vice President substantial responsibilities, which makes a lot of sense, given how enormous the job of the President is. Why not share responsibilities according to the strengths of each of the two individuals?
Of course, Hillary believes that it is her destiny to be on the top of the ticket. Almost nobody ever believes that it is their destiny to be number two. The human species seems to believe that there is alpha, and there is everybody else. Most mammals have more nuanced social structures than that, but not good old homo sapiens. Wise people only want the top spot or one is dirt. Nobody in most Olympics cheers for getting the silver medal, and one competitor who did was mocked for it by his fellow American athletes. He simply maintained that on that day he was the second best in his event in the world, and that second best in the world is pretty good, and he was proud of it as if he had won the gold, because he deserved to be proud of what he had done, and no one ever changed his mind.
Well, same thing applies even more to being Vice President. Children are taught about Vice Presidents in grade school, same lesson as where they are taught about Presidents. One hundred years from now, if this country still exists, school children will see the first woman to hold the Vice Presidency. By then, probably the same school children will also see the first woman to hold the Presidency. And it may not be much later. And Hillary may worry that some little girl will look at her, if she becomes Vice President, and say, "I want to grow up to be Vice President." What I hope is that the teacher will be able to say, "Good for you, did you know that Hillary Clinton was the best Vice President that this country has ever had? She set an example that has never been equaled before or afterwards by any other Vice President for what a Vice President who is a strong person in her own right can accomplish when she works together with the President for the good of the nation. She accomplished more than many Presidents have, because she knew how to work with Congress and the American people to get things done. President Bernie had the bold ideas, but VP Hillary had the know how to make them work!"
I keep hearing that Hillary knows how to get elected, knows how to get laws passed, has the party support, knows how to organize, knows how to get things done. She probably knows where all the bodies are buried, too, and who to lean on to get a compromise accepted. In short, Hillary has the exact skill set to be the best Vice President a President could ever wish for, except that she has too big an ego to play that role.
I do not hear that Hillary has the wisdom to know what policies to set. Now, of course, in response to this diary, some people will tell me after the fact that of course Hillary has the wisdom. That goes without saying, they will say.
Bernie, it has been said, over and over again on DKOS, knows what needs to be done, but he is enough of an outsider that he will never get elected, and if he does, he will never get his ideas passed by Congress. Bernie should accept a position as Hillary's VP and persuade her to implement some of his ideas. What is wrong with that picture? Get real, if Hillary is elected President, she will assume that she has a mandate, that she walks on water, and that she does not need to listen to anyone. Even if she lost the nomination, she would have a hard time believing that as VP she should listen to the President, but there is a chance that she would decide to implement the President's policies when she could not persuade him to adopt hers. As President, not more than once or twice in a decade, if that.
So, go below the orange cloud to find out your mission impossible, should you choose to accept it. If you are too young to remember Mission Impossible, ask an old fart like me.
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