It was a very good day yesterday for the Clinton campaign, to say the least. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Jonathan Martin run down the day at The New York Times:
In a video posted on her campaign’s Facebook page shortly after Mr. Sanders departed the White House grounds to visit the Capitol, Mr. Obama described Mrs. Clinton as the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, and implored Democrats to come together to elect her after a divisive party primary.
“I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” Mr. Obama said in the three-minute statement.
Mr. Obama has made no secret of his desire to play an active role in the race to succeed him. “I’m with her, I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there to campaign for Hillary,” Mr. Obama said in the video.
In the wake of the spectacular take-down of Donald Trump Senator Elizabeth Warren provided yesterday, and in light of her endorsement of Hillary Clinton, James Hohmann at The Washington Post analyzes a potential Clinton-Warren ticket:
The two women do not have a particularly deep relationship, but that could change as Clinton rallies Democrats around her in the wake of winning the Democratic nomination in recent days. There were three big endorsements that could have meaningfully helped Clinton wrap up the nomination battle: Warren, President Obama and Vice President Biden. Clinton secured all three on Thursday.
Clinton, a Yale-educated lawyer, like Warren, a Harvard Law professor until she was elected in 2012, is a policy wonk at heart. So the two might talk in more detail about how Clinton could embrace pieces of the progressive agenda that allowed Bernie Sanders to win more than 20 states.
Warren is late to get on the Clinton bandwagon, but her support is crucial nonetheless to Democratic unity efforts. When all of the Democratic women in the Senate endorsed Clinton very early in the campaign,Warren was the lone holdout. She had earlier been the target of efforts from the left to draft her into the presidential race as an alternative to Clinton.
At The Week, Paul Waldman makes the case for a Warren VP pick and highlights the Massachusetts law that may make her leaving her Senate seat less risky for Democrats:
For a long time, those in the know would tell you that as much as liberal Democrats would love to have Warren on the ticket in November, it just wasn't in the cards (I made the argument myself). The cautious Clinton wouldn't risk an all-female ticket, the two don't have much of a personal relationship, and Warren doesn't have foreign policy or national security experience, among other reasons. But the clamor for Warren is rising, and it's still possible Clinton just might pick her. [...]
Even if it's not critical that Clinton take concrete steps to win over Bernie Sanders' supporters (despite what some of the more vocal ones are saying now, the overwhelming majority will be with her), there's little doubt that naming Warren as her running mate would make most Democrats beside themselves with glee. She's one of the most effective advocates for progressive ideas in politics today, and she would make a historic campaign even more so, even if we have no idea whether an all-female ticket would lose additional votes because of sexism over and above what would be lost by having Clinton as the nominee.
But over at New York Magazine, Eric Levitz explains the main reasons Warren would be hesitant to leave the Senate:
Warren would almost certainly have less freedom to openly contest White House policy. During the Obama years, Warren has galvanized opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the appointment of Larry Summers to the Federal Reserve, and Obama’s proposal to cut Social Security benefits by tying increases to the Chained Consumer Price Index
While Clinton currently claims to oppose the TPP, she championed the trade agreement while secretary of State. And Warren’s decision to stay on the sidelines of the Democratic primary was likely informed by her ideological affinity for Bernie Sanders’s platform. Thus, it seems likely that Warren would find herself to the left of a Clinton administration about as frequently as she found herself to the left of Obama’s. Unless Clinton is willing to give her second-in-command veto power over her economic agenda, a Warren pick might muzzle one of progressive Democrats’ most powerful voices.
Whether Warren is on the ticket or not, she certainly will be at the forefront taking on the Donald Trump campaign, along with President Obama and Vice President Biden, who are eager to get on the trail as well for the Democratic Party. Goldie Taylor at The Daily Beast explains the power of Clinton’s new surrogates:
And just when Trump thinks he has seen enough, Sen. Elizabeth Warren— who is also expected to endorse the former cabinet secretary today— will continue delivering stinging body blows. Trump may rue the day he ever called her “Pocahontas.” [...]
Obama, who appears eager to get out on the campaign trail, changes the equation for the braggadocious businessman from New York.
“I’m with her, I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there to campaign for Hillary,” Obama said today.
But more than that, today’s announcement signals an unleashing of surrogates across the country—elected and appointed Democrats who respectfully remained on the sidelines while the primary played itself out. Many, including the president and Sen. Warren, were said to be warming the bench but willing to jump in if Clinton ever got into any real trouble. That bench is empty now and that means a ready-made, key turn operation at the state level that will easily and eagerly integrate with the Clinton campaign.
And, in case you needed more reasons the smile this morning, we have this highlight from Ed Kilgore:
Now some new general election polls are coming out, and sure enough, Clinton's showing some momentum. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey has her up by eight points; IDB/TIPP has her up five. Even Rasmussen — which had Trump leading by five points in mid-May — now has Clinton leading by four. And all these results are occurring before it sinks in that Clinton has now locked up her nomination and made history. What's more, on Thursday afternoon Fox News came out with a survey showing a six-point swing from a three-point Trump lead in May to a three-point HRC lead now.
These findings, like the earlier pro-Trump numbers, could be little more than statistical noise. But as a mood-changers they could work wonders, as the whole hep political world holds its collective breath to see if Trump's apparent transformation into just another Republican nominee who had as good a chance of victory as Mitt Romney four years ago was a mirage.
