The full article
Democrats need to stop second guessing: Joe Biden was 100% the right choice for Obama’s vice presidential running mate.
For some reason, the Monday morning quarterbacks are out in full force, lamenting over Obama’s decision to pass on Hillary Clinton (“if only he’d picked Hillary, Sarah Palin would be no problem!”). First and foremost, that claim is downright absurd. As Gloria Steinem said, the only thing Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin share “is a chromosome.”
But people seem to forget that just a few weeks ago, the Obama/Clinton ticket was universally a bad idea. Had Obama put Hillary on the ticket, he’d be in a world of trouble, far worse than he is now. He would have alienated thousands of people who simply do not want to see Hillary Clinton anywhere near the White House. Don’t be mistaken: there are a lot of them.
Here are ten more reasons why Obama made the right choice:
10. An Obama-Clinton Ticket Would Have Lacked Experience
Hillary Clinton is just under two years into her second term. Barack Obama is just under four years into his first. An Obama/Clinton ticket would have less than two Senate terms under its belt combined. The fodder that would have created for Republicans would have been never ending, especially considering that McCain’s chief charge against Obama up until now has been his lack of experience. Not so for the Obama/Biden ticket. Biden has been in the Senate for six full terms. That’s more than 35 years of service- more than enough to be a learned counselor to a young president with relatively little experience dealing with the complexities of American government.
9. Clinton Would Have Undermined Obama’s Message
Selecting Clinton would have directly undermined his message of change. By George W. Bush’s selection of the very men who ran the presidencies of his father, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford (i.e., Cheney and Rumsfeld), it was very clear that change was not on his mind. Obama’s mantra in the Democratic primary was that while the 90s were good, the best years are ahead of us. He hammered the point that he didn’t want to go back to the way things were then, he wanted to go a new direction. Hillary Clinton is a vestige of her husband’s administration. And while one knows exactly what kind of success they were signing up for with Clinton, theoretically, an Obama Administration knew no bounds when it came to potential. Picking her would have been a direct contradiction of his intent to bring new ideas to Washington.
8. Clinton’s Presence on the Ticket Would Have Galvanized the Right
There are a lot of conservatives who simply do not like John McCain. He alienated the religious right by calling their pastors “agents of intolerance.” He shot himself in the foot when it came to advocates of immigration reform with his support of the amnesty bill. Gun advocates? He burned that bridge when he effectively neutralized the NRA’s ability to donate to the campaigns of Second Amendment supporters. But put all that aside: if there is one person the right could not stand, it was Bill Clinton. Hell, they impeached him. There is no doubt that Republicans and conservatives across the country would have swallowed their pride and pulled the lever for McCain, if for no other reason than to prevent another Clinton from getting into executive office.
This was sent to me by a fellow woman Democrat today. The story it tells is one we should not forget or fail to honor.
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
(Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the Night of Terror on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.
History is being made.
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is rated number on CBS News’ latest ranking of potential running mates for Sen. Barack Obama. (Hat tip to Hog House Blog!)
1 Kathleen Sebelius | BioThe buzz around the Kansas governor is only growing. In a recent local TV interview, Obama offered some strong praise for her, saying, “I love Kathleen Sebelius. I think she is as talented a public official as there is right now.” Sebelius wouldn’t confirm that she’s being vetted, but Congressional Quarterly points out she is no longer denying it either.Kansas’ neighbor Sen. Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska, is #3 with a bullet.
