Randi Rhodes stated a few days ago that Hillary’s and Barak’s campaigns are in talks of merging and she thinks Hillary will be chosen as the VP, or at least this is very likely to be the case.
It then dawned on me why Hillary is still campaigning and running in the primary: she knows that as long as she continues to run, she continues to amass delegates. Hillary is a smart lady and she knows that she may not get the nomination for President, but if she has enough support she can clinch the VP slot.
Hillary’s insistent on seating the Florida and MI delegates at the national convention furthers her goal to increase her delegate count for VP ambition.
According to the DNC nomination rule, the VP is chosen by the same method as the nomination for the President. After the delegates cast their votes for the Presidential nominee, they then vote for the VP nominee. The VP candidate that gets the majority of the vote wins the VP nomination. Simple and per the rules.
At the convention, Hillary will declare that she intends to run for the VP slot.
Her chance of winning the VP slot is very strong, since she has almost half the delegate count so far. If all of her delegates vote for her (and you know they will) she will get the majority of the VP vote and beat any candidate that Obama may support. The only way Hillary will lose is if all of Obama’s delegates vote against her and instead unanimously vote for Obama’s pick for VP. But this scenario is not likely, as some Obama delegates will vote for Hillary.
Hillary may not be a bad pick for VP in terms of winning the votes. One strategy for picking the VP is how that person will enhance the chances of the presidential/vice presidential ticket, especially in states where the presidential nominee is not strong. If we consider purely in terms of getting the vote, I think it is hard to argue against an Obama/Clinton ticket. These two are amongst our strongest Democratic leaders.
The perception of whether an Obama/Clinton joint ticket is good for the Democratic Party is all over the place, but clearly Hillary’s supporters want her to be the VP, and it seems, so does Hillary.