Please Don't Go

There was a vague communique later about a "productive" meeting. He must have found her likable enough.

Bill Kristol declares the VP contest over:

"The Obama camp has moved quickly--and deftly--to shut down the Hillary Clinton bid for the vice presidential pick.

"The well-sourced Jackie Calmes reports in the Wall Street Journal that 'close advisers to Sen. Obama are signaling that an Obama-Clinton ticket is highly unlikely.' . . .

"So the unvettability of Bill Clinton is the way Obama avoids having to offend Hillary and her almost 18 million voters. Obama won't have to publicly rule out Hillary, or make a potentially insulting case that others are better qualified for the job . . .

"At some point--I'd guess pretty soon--Hillary will see the writing on the wall and will take herself out of the running, so she can save face, and to ensure she can't be accused of creating trouble if Obama loses in November. So Obama will be able to make his choice without being accused of having spurned Hillary."

Roger Simon is skeptical of the usual rationales:

"First, do no harm. Obama needs someone who is not going to damage the ticket. Very few people cast a vote for president based on who the running mate is. So even a good choice doesn't help you all that much, but a bad choice can hurt you. Lee Atwater, who was George H.W. Bush's campaign manager in 1988, once told me that Dan Quayle cost the ticket 2 to 3 percentage points . . .

"But Obama must choose carefully. Clinton supporters say she is the strongest choice because only she has been 'fully vetted.' But being fully vetted doesn't mean old stuff doesn't come back to haunt you. Mike Dukakis had been fully vetted on Willie Horton, and John Kerry had been fully vetted on his Swift Boat service. In reality, all Clinton's old baggage -- including Whitewater, cattle futures trading and Travelgate -- is likely to come up again. Presidential elections have a way of breathing new life into old controversies.

"What about Bill? If Hillary has baggage, Bill is a Samsonite factory. Forget about the old stuff. Look at his diminished status with voters, especially black voters, in this election. Look at his drama. 'I have never seen anything like it,' he said recently, referring to his wife's treatment in the primaries. 'I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running!' And is the White House really big enough for one president in the West Wing and another in the East Wing?"

Well, if space is a problem, they could always build an add-on in that big backyard. The Clintons could even pay for it with their $109 million.

The WSJ editorial page imagines a complicated future: