OBAMA’S VP SEARCH MISTAKE
Published in The New York Post on June 5, 2008.
On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.
As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.
HILLARY’S NO DECISION LIKE SONNY LISTON’S
When Hillary Clinton, having lost the Democratic nomination, said that she would not “make a decision” that night, I imagined that Sonny Liston, flat on his back in Lewisboro, Maine having been knocked out by Mohammed Ali, lifting up his battered head and saying “I haven’t made a decision.” It is no longer her decision to make. It is Obama’s decision to make. Hillary’s speech seemed to portray her has having a power she did not have. The primary is over. She has lost. Apparently noone has told her that it is no longer a question of what she wants. Earth to Hillary: Its over.
OBAMA’S IRAQ ACHILLES HEEL
Published in The New York Post on June 3, 2008.
John McCain needs to go on the offensive against Barack Obama over the Iraq war.
Polls tell us that his support for the Iraq invasion is one of voters’ chief problems with McCain. Obama’s chief credential, on the other hand, is his early, consistent opposition to the war.
Even with recent successes in Iraq, the war remains a heavy negative for McCain. But he can turn that around; here’s how.
NO MENAGE-”-TROIS FOR OBAMA
Published on TheHill.com on June 3, 2008.
Putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket for vice president creates a menage-a -trois. Bill will be the unexpected roommate. Even if a President Obama can discipline Hillary and get her to play second fiddle, there is not the remotest chance that he can get the former president to accept such rules. Even if Bill Clinton wanted to rein in his newly prolific public expressions of rage and frustration, there is doubt that he is any longer capable of doing so.
Hillary, who likely desperately wants to be tapped for vice president, is going about it in exactly the wrong way. She seems to be demanding a kind of coalition government between herself and Obama, a definition of the vice presidency not likely to appeal to the president. It reminds me of 1980 when there were discussions of a ticket with Reagan as the presidential nominee and former President Gerald Ford as the vice president in a coalition government where the VP would have extraordinary powers.
