Barack Obama Elected President!

[Ryan]

And if a scandal happens with that quack (like him being caught having sex with a male prostitute), then I hope his "people" eat him alive. People like him disgust me. So unhappy and willing to pass judgment on other people's lives, yet probably has piles of skeletons in his closet.

[Roman]

Jimmy Carter urged Barack Obama not to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate in an interview with a British publication, saying such a pairing “would be the worst mistake that could be made.”

The former Democratic president, who announced his support for Obama as the Illinois senator clinched his party’s nomination Tuesday night, told the Guardian’s Weekend magazine that Obama and Clinton together “would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates.”

In a bluntly worded assessment, Carter defended his stance by citing Clinton’s negative ratings and the many questions and biases Obama faces.

“If you take that 50 percent who just don’t want to vote for Clinton and add it to whatever element there might be who don’t think Obama is white enough or old enough or experienced enough or because he’s got a middle name that sounds Arab, you could have the worst of both worlds,” he said.

The former president said he also would have opposed a Clinton-Obama ticket with Clinton at the top.

His comments only add to the sharply opinionated speculation about whether Obama should reach out to Clinton with an invitation to be his running mate. Clinton said on a conference call with lawmakers Tuesday that she would be open to a VP slot if it would help the party.

Click here to read more about Carter’s comments on Obama in the Guardian.

[Roman]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion...ucked_0604.html

[EricaKane70]

^^^I agree with Carter but then the other side of the coin is that almost 50% voted for hillary and the other 50% voted for obama. You either risk hillary's supporters by not making her vp or pick her and risk all of her negative aspects that she will bring to the campaign. Obama should look it at it from all sides when he makes his decision, picking her isn't so black and white. IMO, precedents needs to be taken that she came in 2nd in a very close democratic race. The choice is his and his alone, he shouldn't swayed by hillarys friends aka bob johnson on todays cnn.

[Roman]

Barack Obama can’t possibly be bright enough to capture the Democratic presidential nomination and dumb enough to immediately undermine it by offering second spot on the ticket to Hillary Clinton.

He certainly must know that. He can’t say as much at the moment, since blatant honesty would alienate the Clinton camp, and Obama could still use the Clintons’ drawing power in the months ahead as he sets out on the second leg of his White House quest, the one in which he actually campaigns against the Republicans.

In making her plug for the vice-presidency, Mrs. Clinton spotlighted all the elements that make her eminently unsuitable for the job. She refused even to acknowledge Obama had beaten her in the race for the nomination. He won it fair and square, playing by the rules and amassing the required number of delegates to make him the nominee, yet Mrs. Clinton can’t bring herself to acknowledge as much and accept defeat gracefully.

She clings to the notion that somehow she won -- that if results from the tainted primaries in Michigan and Florida were counted and the caucuses interpreted in just the right way, it could transfer enough support from Obama to her to swing things in her direction. She can’t bring herself to accept what has been obvious for months now, that the party couldn’t possibly ignore its own rules and pretend the primaries in those two states were in any way acceptable. She also can’t bring herself to understand that if the party did try to manipulate the outcome in Michigan and Florida to favour her, it would undermine its own credibility to such an extent that the outcome would become meaningless.

That’s because rules don’t seem to mean a lot to the Clintons. Winning counts, how you get there doesn’t. If Mr. Obama were to offer Mrs. Clinton a spot on the ticket, she could be expected to treat it as evidence of her own pre-eminence, and campaign on that basis. It wouldn’t be the Obama-Clinton ticket, it would be Me, Hillary Clinton and, oh yes, that other guy ... the inexperienced senator from Illinois, what was his name...?

She made this clear enough early in the race when, already trailing Mr. Obama, she floated the possibility he might just earn himself second spot on her ticket. In her mind she deserves the nomination, and awarding it to Mr. Obama is either a mistake or an injustice. The all-consuming nature of her ambition was evident again when, having fallen well behind Mr. Obama, she justified maintaining her candidacy on the basis that something might happen to him -- she pointed to the assassination of Robert Kennedy as an example -- and the party might find itself without a candidate if she departed too soon.

Hmmm. There are lots of ways to treat the glass as half full, but suggesting that someone might assassinate your opponent isn’t usually recommended as one of them. Mrs. Clinton can’t get that possibility of eventual victory out of her mind. Even in not-quite-conceding the race, she hinted her opponent wasn’t entirely worthy of the honour, that giving in would be to surrender her support to a lesser candidate:

“I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and to no longer be invisible,” she declared.

“In millions of quiet moments in thousands of places you asked yourself a simple question: who will be the strongest candidate? Who will be ready to take charge of the White House and ready to be commander-in-chief?

“I often felt that each of your votes was a prayer for our nation...I am so proud we stayed the course together.”

Put her on the ticket and more of the same could be expected. The vice-president is the fall-back choice, the viable alternative should something tragic befall the president; it’s not a post for someone who sees herself as the rightful winner and is just waiting for the opportunity to correct history’s error. She wouldn’t want to wait long: Mrs. Clinton is 60, Mr. Obama 46. Hanging around for eight years should he be elected to two terms isn’t likely the goal, since she’d have more power and prestige staying in the Senate. And can anyone imagine Bill Clinton as Second Lady for eight years, deferring to Michelle Obama? Nope, the only justification for wanting to be vice-president is the hope that Mr. Obama fails for some reason to become president, and she gets another chance.

Which makes her entirely unsuitable. Mr. Obama must know that. He just can’t say it.

Kelly McParland is Politics Editor of the National Post

[Wales2004]

When I saw him on MSNBC I felt as if I needed a drink to decipher. Anyway, he has an agenda. I think it's ridiculous that he and his NY cohorts are pushing a VP spot without giving Obama a break. Either they need whatever perks they expected to get from her presidency badly or they truly want her out of NY for Paterson's sake.

Soon could be months from now if she so chooses. She said the nomination had been stolen from her because she got the most votes. She's the only person that got 18 million votes or whatever number she claims to have gotten. That doesn't add up to unity.

As I said, Bill Clinton is an adult. Obama can say anything he wants but Bill Clinton will do whatever he wants to do. Why should Obama have to put himself in a position to tell Bill Clinton what to do? It has nothing to do with maturity. People can say it any way they want to but Bill Clinton is his own man and if his wife didn't get him to stand down then why should Barack Obama have to try to do that? The media will probably spend more time following him around for fodder than they will pay to Obama. In fact they'll follow both Clintons around more.

I don't see where her coming in second in the primary should be a big factor in her being selected for VP. According to her the thing would be over Feb 5th and we see that didn't happen. Just because she decided to stay in and fight it out, cause a rift and drum up votes, doesn't add up to VP nomination to me. Who knows what might have happened had it been Edwards vs. Obama or had Romney stayed in and fought McCain? They didn't and it is what it is.

No one can come up with any precise figure as to how many people who voted for her will vote Democrat anyway. How many people crossed over but have no intention of voting Democrat? She's not going to deliver each and every one of the people that voted for her. Some of them are automatically going to vote party lines. Some of them won't vote for Obama regardless of her presence on a ticket or not. And there's a percentage that will vote for him if she's on the ticket and is that percentage a difference maker? No one can say for sure.

My opinion is that he needs to pick someone he can trust and work with in unity to get the job done. As far as I'm concerned, HC is the one that took this to an uglier place than it needed to go and her shake down position isn't one of unification. I wouldn't feel comfortable with someone who was admittedly waiting for some dirt to come out on me to enable her to claim the nomination.

[EricaKane70]

I don't think hillary will wait months from now to concede, she knows she has lost this thing. Right now she is looking for what she can get from obama. I think once they talk she will concede and the party will be united.

Your right that BC will say anything he wants, but what has that gotten him? I think if he sits back and sees the bigger picture he will shut up somewhat. I don't think the media will spend all their time on clinton, because obama is the presidential nom, they would be foolish to do that.imo

Her coming in second should be a big factor because the people in the democratic party made her second, obama cannot ignore that fact. Being VP is not owed to HC nor should obama be forced to pick her. But he should look at the facts that HC came in second and that was because she was the democrats second choice. Other than Al Gore who is more popular with the voters than HC in the democratic party, anyone he picks will pale in comparison to HC. Yes she has negativity, but apparently that didn't sway people from voting for her. Edwards and Romney were no where near close to obama and McCain in the race, obama barely beat hillary.

I wasn't saying that all of hillary's supporters will gonna vote for obama based on if she was vp, but unfortuanately some of her voters will vote the other way if she is not vp. No one knows the percentage of the voters who will stay at home, vote for McCain, or vote for obama if she isn't vp. Obama just needs to take this time to find the best vp for him. I just think hillary clinton should take priority over his other picks because she did come in 2nd and it was the american people that put her in that position. To ignore what the people want is wrong.imo Had hillary been the nom and she didn't pick obama I would be outraged and would consider sitting out in Nov. So I can identify how HC supporters feel I would feel the same way.

[Wales2004]

Soon is whenever she decides it is. Shaking Obama down is a priority......that sounds pretty gracious to me (and yes, I'm kidding). The party is going to just unite because she concedes. It will be on its way to uniting, however long it takes.

You're applying logic to Bill Clinton and I'm not since he hasn't shown in all of this that he operates based on logic. The media will spend their fair share on this. Obama won the majority of the delegates yesterday but a great deal of focus today has been on HC and what she wants and what she's doing, etc. The media doesn't focus enough on the issues. They take more pleasure in focusing and speculating on sideshows.

We clearly disagree on this point. HC has her pros but I think think the cons happen to outweigh them. It also makes Obama look like an extremely weak person if he feels he needs her on his ticket to win and it makes his presidency all about the Clintons. Clearly it's advantageous for them to usurp him but it's certainly not beneficial to him and the people who want to see someone other than the Clintons running the country.

Life is such that you cannot please everyone and there may be a radical segment of Clinton supporters who want her on the ticket in order to support him, just as there may be a radical segment of Obama supporters who won't support him if she's on the ticket. You say it's wrong to ignore what a radical segment of her supporters may want and I say it's equally as wrong to ignore his supporters who helped him get where he is. Bob Johnson and others have a lot of gall threatening him into putting her on the ticket, especially when she hasn't even conceded. They have a lot of nerve suggesting that their interests outweigh the interests of people who chose not to support her. If she needs time to process what happened then he's due just as much time to process what happened to him as well.

I wouldn't be outraged over either one of their choices one way or the other. It bothers me to see anyone shaken down. I wouldn't want people to shake her down to put him on her ticket if she were the nominee. I think it was ridiculous that some of her supporters and maybe even she, in some way, suggested that Obama should be her VP when he was leading her in delegates and it's just as bad now that they're disrespectful to him in demanding she be put on the ticket to make them happy. He deserves the respect of being able to sort through his options and choose the person that will best work with him. She was standing their last night saying she won the most votes and he stole her nomination and she should be president not him. She had a decent moment today at AIPAC but the man has been lavishing her with accolades. Her shake down strategy is poor.

You think she should be on the ticket. I disagree and I don't want to be repetitious so let's leave it at that.

[EricaKane70]

Regardless, I think obama should pick the strongest vp, and I happen to think that is hillary. I think her pro's far outweigh her con's but thats just my opinion. An I don't want to sound repetitous either so I will leave at that also.

[Ryan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_politics_cl...C3lHjtxS_Ib.3QA

Clinton to end presidential campaign on Friday: ABC

22 minutes ago

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton will drop out of the presidential race on Friday and cede the Democratic nomination to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, ABC News reported on Wednesday, without citing sources.

Obama secured the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on Tuesday night after a long, hard-fought primary battle with Clinton for the right to face Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the November 4 general election.

ABC reported that Clinton would hold an event on Friday flanked by supporters "in which we believe, all indications are she will concede the race, once and for all."

Obama, the first black candidate to lead a major U.S. party into a White House race, began the task of unifying a fractured party the day after clinching the nomination.

Clinton has refused to concede but called it "an honor" to have competed against him.

Obama faces the question of whether to name Clinton as his running mate. The former first lady has indicated interest in the job after her presidential bid fell short.

"We're going to be having a conversation in coming weeks, and I'm very confident how unified the Democratic Party's going to be to win in November," Obama told reporters when asked about Clinton.

Obama, 46, began the race as a decided underdog against Clinton, one of the best-known U.S. politicians but a polarizing figure who arouses strong passions among both supporters and opponents.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

[Ryan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_on_...r/obama_clinton

Obama names a Kennedy to help pick veep

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago

Barack Obama turned in earnest to the general election and the hunt for a running mate Wednesday, embraced by Democratic leaders who signaled forcefully and sometimes impatiently to Hillary Rodham Clinton that her marathon duel with Obama was over. Clinton kept her silence in public, while supporters made a case for her as Obama's No. 2.

Obama himself moved to link himself more closely with a young Democratic hero of a half-century ago, picking President Kennedy's daughter Caroline to help him choose a vice president.

While Clinton still wasn't conceding, even after Tuesday's primaries and a flood of "superdelegate" endorsements of Obama sealed the nomination, there were signs aplenty that she was closing shop. She began bidding campaign staff members farewell, and a number were told not to come to work after Friday. Last paychecks were expected to go out June 15.

The primary rivals ran into each other backstage at a hall where both spoke to Jewish leaders, but Obama said there was no mention of how or when she would formally end her long campaign to become the nation's first female president.

Obama showed no impatience, merely smiling and accepting congratulations from colleagues in both parties as he returned to the Capitol for a Senate vote. But other Democrats urged her to get out of the way.

"I don't see why we don't get on with it and endorse" Obama, said Rep. Charles Rangel, a congressman from Clinton's home state of New York. He said it was only a matter of time before he and other Clinton supporters formally back Obama.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Obama supporter, said Clinton's non-concession "creates a pretty delicate situation here, an awkward situation."

"I don't want to push her. Nobody is going to push her," Durbin said on MSNBC. "But the sooner she does, I think the more likely we're going to be organized and ready to win in November."

Obama began focusing on who will join his ticket in the fall. His campaign said the vetting of potential running mates was to be managed by a three-person team of Caroline Kennedy, former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and longtime Washington insider Jim Johnson.

Clinton has told lawmakers privately that she would be interested in the vice presidential nomination. Obama was noncommittal after his chat with her behind the scenes at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"We're going to be having a conversation in coming weeks, and I'm very confident how unified the Democratic Party's going to be to win in November," he told reporters after a vote in the Senate where he received congratulations from all sides.

Meanwhile, the dam holding back endorsements broke from coast to coast on the day after the primary elections concluded.

Seven senators who had stayed out of the matter said they were giving Obama their commitment and would work toward uniting Democrats for the election, now exactly five months away.

In Nashville, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen was joined by two other superdelegates to say they hoped to bring the party behind Obama even though Clinton won their state. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who had been a Clinton supporter, announced he was backing Obama.

It hardly mattered in terms of delegate math — after months of struggle, Obama had more than enough to prevail at the party convention in Denver in August. But Obama's new backers were also sending a message to Clinton that her race was over.

Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, was lobbying members of the Congressional Black Caucus to urge Obama to place Clinton on the ticket. He said he was doing so with her blessing.

Rangel, a founding member of the caucus, expressed doubts that Johnson's approach would work. "I don't really think that the way to get Obama to (choose) Clinton would be to put pressure on him. I think it would have the opposite effect," Rangel said.

The Obama camp's disclosure about the three-person veep vetting team was an effort to change the subject from the long, divisive primary campaign toward the general election.

Kennedy's name came as a surprise, although she endorsed Obama at a critical time last winter, saying he could be an inspirational leader like her father. She also campaigned for Obama.

Holder is a former federal prosecutor and District of Columbia Superior Court judge who held the No. 2 job at the Justice Department under President Clinton.

Johnson is widely known among Democrats for having helped previous candidates, including John Kerry four years ago, sift through vice presidential possibilities. He is a former chief executive officer for the mortgage lender Fannie Mae.

Clinton visited her campaign headquarters in suburban Arlington, Va., where she thanked staff members for their work. Aides said she was also phoning superdelegates and supporters, and planned to host an 89th birthday celebration at her Washington home for her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

Several high-dollar fundraisers who had spoken to the former first lady described her as upbeat and realistic about what she faced.

"She's very resolved, but open minded about whatever's coming. She's going forward with an optimistic eye," said Susie Tompkins Buell, a San Francisco-based fundraiser who flew from New York to Washington early Wednesday morning.

Some lawmakers showed deference to Clinton, an indication of the political and fundraising power that she and her husband still wield.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, an uncommitted superdelegate, said he will be supporting Obama but declined to make a formal endorsement. "I expect Mrs. Clinton to say some things over the next couple of days and I think that's appropriate for her to do. And I expect her to say that, at which time I may make a more formal" announcement, Hoyer said.

___

Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett, Laurie Kellman, Beth Fouhy and Jesse Holland contributed to this report.

[EricaKane70]

Bob johnson just needs to stay the hell out of this, how dare he try to strong arm obama after BJ tried to belittle BO for the clintons in the South carolina primary.

[Roman]

Everyone needs to stay out of it. The more people who try to strong arm him the worse it looks for her.

[TC]

Did anyone really expect her to concede today given that it's her mother's 89th birthday?

[EricaKane70]

No I didn't and she mentioned that in her speech last night. I knew should would concede sometime this week, beyond this week would have been ridiculous.