Will Hillary run as an independent?

[doeton]

Hillary as vp wouldn't stop me from voting Obama.

 

[MsWikia]

But will Hillary care about the Party over herself?

"The downside for Obama of having Mrs. Clinton on the ticket far outweighs the upside. Here are a few reasons why, in no particular order of importance:

She adds little or nothing to the ticket. Despite Hillary’s claim of being able to carry the "big" states, let’s be realistic. New York, California, and New Jersey are going to go Democratic no matter who is the nominee. Hillary won Texas(allegedly), but the chances of Texas becoming a blue state in November are slim and none.

On the other hand, Obama has a chance to put the South in play because of the large number of African-American voters in states like North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. With Hillary’s recent remarks on "hard-working white Americans" some of those voters might not be as motivated to turn out.

It diminishes Obama’s message of change. Running as the candidate who wants to change the way things are done in Washington will be difficult with a running mate who has been involved in Washington politics for the last 16 years. In my opinion, Obama needs a VP from outside the beltway, a governor or possibly a former general, who could counter McCain’s advantage in the area of military and foreign policy experience.

A successful Obama administration is not in Hillary’s best interests. If she wants to make another run for president, eight years of President Obama would make Hillary nearly 70 years old in 2016. She may work to undercut his agenda and his ability to pass legislation to see to it that doesn’t happen.

Bill, the ultimate loose cannon. Does Obama really want Bill traveling the world with the authority of the husband of the vice-president, saying who-knows-what. I would hardly think so.

Hillary is a polarizing person. Beginning a campaign for president with a running mate that half of the country will not vote for and more than half thinks is dishonest seems to me to be putting Obama at a disadvantage before the race even starts.

Hillary energizes the Republican attack machine. If Obama wants to make this campaign about the future of the country, that will be a lot easier without the dredging up of all the Clinton scandals of the past, which will surely happen if Hillary is on the ticket. I can the ads now, do you really want this person a heartbeat away from the presidency? Again, this is more baggage that Obama doesn’t need to carry.

There are many potential VP candidates who could add to Obama’s strengths and shore up some of his weaknesses. Governors Kaine of Virginia, Sebelius of Kansas, or Strickland of Ohio to name three. On the military side the possibility of Wesley Clark or Anthony Zinni has been mentioned. Any of these would bring positives to the ticket without all the negatives that Hillary brings. In my opinion, Obama and Clinton are oil and water, not a good mix."

Good points! I think Edwards would make a good VP.

 

[Jon]

Good points! I think Edwards would make a good VP.

He's already said he will NOT run as VP.

Obama's best bet is Richardson.

 

[Annie]

Given how close the race is between Hillary and Obama, do you think she will pull out of the Party and run as an independent?

If she thinks she could win in 2012 (if McCain wins this year) this would be a sure way to make sure that Obama is out of the picture....by pulling a Nader on him. I could see her being mean enough to destroy the "upstart" who is derailing her...

However, she would be cutting ties with the Party plus she doesn't have all that much money...

thoughts?

I don't think so. While they will have lots of issues with the DNC, the Clintons need the party, if she will run again.

 

[Laine]

This is a no brainer and the fact of the matter is absolutley not. If she wanted to run an independent campaign then she should have dropped out of the race months ago in order to secure ballot lines in the states. She would not have automatic ballot access and she and her supporters would have to run a petition campaign to even get her name on the ballot.

The deadline has passed in Texas for independents to file their signatures and the deadline for most states is the start of August. If she wanted to make the ballot on a majority of the states then she would have to drop out now and I don't see that happening. I don't doubt that Clinton would have the capability of getting the number of signatures needed but she would have to start now in order to do so.

 

[Nate Peele]

There are a lot of groups urging people to write in Hillary in the general election campaign. I think that's pretty stupid. If you're going to write in a candidate get creative.

My conservative Republican blog has been endorsing Hillary Clinton over Barry Obama for sometime now. We've had a lot of big time Hillary supporters checking in to see what new scandal Obama is embroiled in each day. We've also endorsed the write in Hillary movement.

However, it seems silly to me for Democrats unhappy with the primary's outcome to write in Hillary when there are so many other choices. If you don't like Obama or McCain why not write in Ronald Reagan. Wouldn't the Gipper be great to have in office right now? For you Democrats why not JFK or FDR or Stalin. If your vote isn't going to count anyway, have fun with it. There's no reason to say "I don't like either of these choices I'm picking a third choice I like better" when you have billions of choices.

If you're an environmentalist write in your favorite tree. You want somebody who will fight for working women--Norma Rae. If you're feeling guilty that McCain winning will mean he gets to nominate 3 conservative judges and the country my finally overturn Roe v. Wade then why not write in Margaret Sanger. If I wasn't voting John McCain I'd probably write in Bill O'Reilly or Garfield creator Jim Davis.