fenwaydav's Blog

I think that is a brilliant idea. I bet "they" would never let it happen though. Neither one of them - Obama or McCain - will stand a chance against her if people have that choice in the fall. If it comes down to it, I too think she should do this.

V

Ummm yeah, there is zero chance of Clinton winning if she ran as an independent, all she would do is hand the election to McCain and we would have ourselves a nice 3rd Bush term. She's not stupid, after this is all over there is a really good chance she'll become the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate, so she'd still have tremendous influence on the legislative agenda. If she ran as an independent and torpedoed the Barack Obama, she would lose whatever possible influence she could wield in the Senate. I understand that you guys are big Hillary backers, and I even toyed with supporting her myself, but at the end of the day if you voted for her, you have a lot more in common with Barack Obama than John McCain. Clinton even said so herself yesterday.

Vlily,
I understand perfectly that the choices have not been limited to Obama and McCain. There are likely to be in fact four candidates running for President. Obama, McCain, Nader and Bob Barr who will run as a libertarian. If Hillary wants to mount an indepdent campaign she has every right to do so. But practically speaking she has no chance of winning. First she has to get on the ballot in all 50 states, which thanks to rules that the two major parties crafted (including Hillary and Bill), make it nigh impossible for third party or independent challengers to get on the ballot, even if your name is Hillary Clinton. (to be cont...)

Again, when this is all said and done she is probably going to be Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate, it will give her a large influence on the congressional agenda, and a MUCH bigger platform should say Barack Obama lose in '08. She could step in in 2012 and be the hero of the party if Obama loses. To put it simply, Hillary Clinton is not going to run as independent, she's a loyal Democrat and an incredibly smart woman who knows that to run as an indepdent would throw away her whole political career.

Her loyalty to the Democratic Party has yielded her a big slap in the face. People that would have and should have been behind her have jumped ship. It all started with the Oprah Factor. When team Kennedy stabbed her that was the last straw. She is No Ross Perot. The States she has won I think will still be there behind her. It's time these delegates have seen the light.

Dave and Vlily,
Although it is probably unlikely, what would you do if Barack picked Hillary to be his Vice President?

I agree, but it has happened in the past with Reagan and Bush I, and JFK and LBJ

Hey Matty, Joe Lieberman didn't "leave" the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party "left" him. This is not your father's Democrat Party.



MattyG
May 16, 2008 | 1:29 PM Hillary won't leave the Democrats to run as a 3rd party candidate. Her character will prevent her from abandoning the party like Joe LIEberman did.

We have to do this again? Joe did leave the party because he lost a primry election and was elected as an Independent. He is no longer a Democrat.

The "party left him" thing bullyouknowwhat.

Why not just have everyone write her name in on the ballot? That would show all the Dem's what we think of who they are backing!