This past Tuesday, as the primary season came to a close, Senator Obama has won enough delegates to make him the presumptive Democrat nominee for President. Now, we begin the general election season as Senator McCain will take on Obama for the presidency. The first order of business that is usually taken care of is the selection of each candidate's running mate. Many names have been thrown out there on each side, most notably Condoleeza Rice and Rudy Giuliani with McCain and Hillary Clinton with Obama. However, with the seemingly different crowds attached to Senators Obama and Clinton, there have been some doubts as to whether that relationship would work between them. When looking at the primary figures, however, we can see that both candidates received rougly around 18 million votes (some say Senator Clinton received more). With this information, there had been an interesting proposition that I had been thinking about. It struck me as far from possible, however I saw it brought up in a Daily Show interview with John McCain, and most recently in this Wired.com article. The idea was for John McCain to offer his V.P. position to none other than Senator Clinton. I think that this is a brilliant idea, actually. John McCain is already known for being a maverick in the Republican Party, and taking some not-so-typical-conservative stances on things. He has pushed for both parties working together, and has actually disagreed with many of his GOP colleagues on numerous important issues. HIllary Clinton could help give McCain not only the Republican voters, but maybe a majority of her 18 million Democrat votes. In the presidency, they would be a dynamite ticket. Barack Obama has been criticized for his lack of national security experience, and how he would handle the responsibilities of being President, after being in Washington for such a short period of time. With a McCain/Clinton ticket, you have a huge amount of experience. McCain is well-versed in politics, national security, and many of the major issues. Hillary, meanwhile, could bring some of her experiences as First Lady with her (along with the expertise of her husband, Former President Bill Clinton), and can also contribute on some of her stronger issues. Together they could form a very strong tandem that could be tackle numerous issues, and bring both parties in Congress together to make sure things get done. According to sources cited in the above linked Wired article, if Hillary accepted this proposal then it would be beneficial for all the reason previously disscussed; if she said no, then "McCain will look like the guy who really works across party lines," something that Obama has tried to preach. I, for one, believe that this would be an amazing situation if both McCain and Clinton could accept the "maverick-ness" of it, and come to see how brilliant it would be. Senator McCain is the "straight-talk express" who has a plethora of experience in both Washington and national security, and would know how to get the job done and tell the American people the truth. Senator Clinton, meanwhile, could play a great balance with him, and help him with many other "new" issues like scientific breakthroughs, women's issues, and climate change. Together, both Senators McCain and Clinton (along with Bill Clinton), would truly make a "dream ticket" that could actually be a big "change" Americans could believe in.
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