Like GrimReefa, I can't believe I would make this suggestion, especially after the smear job she did on Obama in the primary and vowing that I'd be hard-pressed to ever vote for Hillary. But here I am, adding a few more pragmatic points to Grim's...
- Wouldn't Hillary's selection as VP step on--no, make that, stomp on--any coverage of McCain's pick? You would have 2 weeks of unity stories, and no one in McCain's VP pool--and maybe not even McCain himself--has the star power of Clinton. A safe McCain pick like Pawlenty or Romney would be overshadowed in any comparison to Hillary. Only choosing Lieberman would make a splash--at the same time, alienating the GOP base and not necessarily appealing any more to the swing voters Hillary might pick up for Barack.
- She has been on relatively good behavior since conceding (though there's always some tape or Bill interview that surfaces whenever I convince myself that Hillary would be the best running mate).
- At this point, picking her won't overshadow Barack, especially since she has been pretty good at receding into the background. If anything, doesn't it raise Obama's stature, since her #2 status only underscores and reminds everyone that he's #1.
- If the pick is a boring concession to Clintonites like Evan Bayh, why not just pick Hillary instead?
- If Hillary can consolidate leads in swing states like PA and MI, and nudge a few crucial points in deadlocked states like OH and FL, that secures the battlegrounds and lets Barack work on expanding the map. Barack could leave a lot more solo campaigning to Hillary than any other VP pick, as long as #2 stays true.
UPDATE/RESPONSE:
OK, so this Hillary speculation doesn't seem to be very popular here! Mostly, I wrote the diary because the most ideal VP choices--say, Sebelius's political profile with McCaskill's campaigning chops--aren't among the finalists (at least according to media reports), so I wanted to tease out what might be a practical option.
I could get behind Biden for his foreign policy experience and he'd be a good surrogate, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had some skeletons in his closet. (So do the Clintons, but, at this point, would any one be surprised? The irony is that the most scandal-ridden might be the most swift-boat-proof.) Kaine doesn't seem to be holding up great under the spotlight, Bayh seems like Clinton-lite, though could they deliver swing states?
Anyway, thanks for the comments, pro and (mostly) con...