Imagine the scenario: Hillary has been chosen as Barack Obama's VP candidate. They are in a town hall debate with John McCain and his VP. Everything is going well until the question of security comes up. Barack is on the ball with how he can protect the country and work with the generals, etc etc, and Hillary is backing him all the way with everything he is saying, bright smile included.
Then someone innocently asks from the audience: "Mrs Clinton, that is not really true for Mr Obama, is it? You told us not long ago that John McCain was a better commander-in-chief than Barack Obama. Why should we believe you now?"
Why, indeed? Get out of that one, Hillary.
Throughout the nomination campaign, Hillary Clinton was so intent on winning at any cost, she forgot that she and Barack Obama were actually on the same side. While Barack behaved impeccably, in a statesmanlike way, not saying anything derogatory or pointedly about Clinton herself, or her competence, she laid into him whichever way she could, from whatever angle, and then came up with that priceless comment, a boon to Republicans all across America, that John McCain was a better president and protector. That lady did not foresee the consequences of her words for the Democrats, especially them becoming a rod for the Democrats' back.
To say your party rival is worse than your political opponent is truly catastrophic in any sense. She seems to have no respect for Barack Obama, no respect for the Democratic Party and what it stands for, yet would wish to be on the presidential ticket mainly through ambition and little else. If I vilified my rival to such an extent, I certainly would not wish to be his VP. How could I then take back all those inconsiderate things I said? And, if I cannot take them back, then I obviously meant them. And, if I meant them, how does that square with my integrity and desire to run alongside someone I clearly despise?
The problem with behaving badly in such a nomination contest, is that one tends to forget that one's words carry consequences further down the line. Barack Obama needs a vice president who believes in him, who respects his abilities and competence, who will not upstage him and, most important, who will act both publicly and privately in ways that suggest mutual purpose and alignment. In no way, shape or form can that apply to Hillary and Barack together. By denigrating a potential Democratic president in the eyes of the Republicans, purely for her own ends, she conclusively showed what she is like and also derogated herself in the process.
Being a vice president of the most powerful country in the world carries a lot of responsibility, integrity and accountability. It is not a game. Most important, it is about team work, both incumbents striding towards one national aim for the good of the country. Hillary Clinton killed her own chances of joining that team when she placed John McCain above Barack Obama. Anything else which followed in damage limitation would be sheer hypocrisy on her part.
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