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Political consultant Dick Morris has been credited with turning around Bill Clinton's campaign, leading to his second term as President. In ...
Read more about Dick Morris.
Political consultant Dick Morris has been credited with turning around Bill Clinton's campaign, leading to his second term as President. In ...
Read more about Dick Morris.
Obama Needed a Woman but Wimped Out
Dick Morris
It doesn't take a political genius to realize that Barack Obama needed
to nominate a woman for vice president. Obama's key problem is that
there is no gender gap. In the most recent Zogby poll, he runs only 2
points better among women than among men. A Democrat should be running
10 to 15 points better among women.
If Obama is to have a hope of winning, he needs to improve his performance among female voters. The Fox News poll indicates that only about half of those who backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries are voting for Obama and that fully one in five is now planning to back McCain. Attractive to women voters because of his maverick positions on issues and his willingness to defy the Republican orthodoxy, McCain is garnering votes from women who should be part of Obama's core constituency.
So why didn't Obama name a woman? He couldn't nominate Hillary because she came with such baggage that he'd be spending his entire campaign swatting away charges directed at the Clintons. It would be priceless to see Obama trying to justify Bill's refusal to publish the names of the donors to his library or to explain what Bill is doing in Dubai and Kazakhstan.
But what about Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius? While not a national figure, she is attractive and articulate, and would have made a fine candidate. But Obama was terrified that the Clintons would wreck vengeance if he named a woman other than Hillary. But it was all a bluff.
Hillary's delegates would have celebrated the selection of a woman and would not have held it against Obama that it was someone other than Hillary. Hillary, for her part, would have had to grit her teeth and support Sebelius or risk alienating her core constituency. But Obama didn't dare do what he needed to do. He wimped out.
The fact that Barack Obama named Joe Biden as his vice presidential candidate will have relatively little impact on the strategic framework of the race. Biden was the best of the names on Obama's short list. His experience in foreign affairs, his tough advocacy of the Democratic agenda and his skill at handling himself will all help Obama's campaign, but not decisively. The other options were worse. Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia, had as little experience as Obama. Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana, is way too soft spoken and mild for a rough and tumble campaign.
But the most important thing is that Obama did not choose a woman. He needed one. With Hillary's evident availability for the nomination, his failure to name her or some other woman stands out starkly to women voters. It doesn't matter to them that he chose Biden over Bayh or Kaine. What matters is that he did not choose Hillary or another woman.
Now, John McCain can take advantage of Obama's blunder by coming back with a woman nominee for president. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison would be an excellent choice. She's been around for decades and is not going to start making mistakes now. Her nomination would be a signal to American women that McCain takes their aspirations seriously, even if Obama does not. Hutchison is not charismatic. But her circumstances would be if she were nominated. The prospect of a woman vice president would electrify women throughout the nation.
I have previously written about the advantages of Joe Lieberman for vice president. His nomination would send a signal of bipartisanship that would be notable and would hasten Democratic defections. But conservatives would be horrified by the choice of Lieberman. And Obama's failure to nominate a woman is such a glaring misstep that McCain should pounce and take advantage of it.
The ticket will nominally be Obama-Biden. But, to millions of American women it will be Obama and not Hillary.
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To find out more about Dick Morris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. Distributed By Creators Syndicate Inc.
Copyright 2008 Dick Morris And Eileen Mcgann
This news arrived on: 08/25/2008
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Posted Comments:
08-27-2008 15:15
Orminon in North Carolina wrote:
Hillary and Obama
Dick Morris and the Right's daily focus on all things negative about Obama, highlights the lack of positives to focus on McCain.
Their assessment of American women seems as off as a Fox News poll. I don't believe that many thinking women will switch to McCain and the Republican agenda just for the sake of gender.
To her everlasting credit, Hillary consistantly
shows the real stuff many American women are made of; smart, tough and resilient.
Hillary Clinton, God bless her, left the sour grapes to those who focus on such things and
anteed up for Barack Obama and her millions of Democratic supporters.
Their assessment of American women seems as off as a Fox News poll. I don't believe that many thinking women will switch to McCain and the Republican agenda just for the sake of gender.
To her everlasting credit, Hillary consistantly
shows the real stuff many American women are made of; smart, tough and resilient.
Hillary Clinton, God bless her, left the sour grapes to those who focus on such things and
anteed up for Barack Obama and her millions of Democratic supporters.
08-27-2008 14:42
karol wrote:
Obama's VP
There is nothing Obama can and could EVER do that would satisfy his critics! Hillary lost the contest. She was my choice in the beginning. Even before she announced that she would run. She is consistent, strong, and someone I can certainly relate to, she has been vilified, and has stood up to all of the negativity. However, she came up short. Obama won, even though it was by the skin of his teeth, HE WON. Let's get over it. We don't know if he will be successful or not, but surely it couldn't be any worse than what we have now, and THAT IS THE ISSUE! For all those who are against Obama because of the color of his skin, or anything not dealing with the issues. Then vote for your candidate, and then deal with what you get. McCain is an honorable man, and is simply trying to win, and he knows that to win means you have to do all you can, both candidates understand this. They will all be fine once this is over. Will you? Vote your conscience whoever it may be. May the best man win. Hillary is still a champ in my book, but I will be voting for Barack.
08-27-2008 13:38
AnneB-Illinois wrote:
I think Obama realized that he could not choose a woman unless it was Hillary. I know that I would not have voted for him had he selected any other woman - that would have been an even bigger slap in the face to Hillary. And, we all knew he wouldn't let someone so much better than he is, especially a woman, run on the same ticket! My guess is that Michelle also nixed Hillary on his ticket. And, as a Hillary supporter, I don't think I could have voted Democratic with him at the top of the ticket. I will be moving over to McCain - at least he has experience and a record of working with the other party to get things done. I do hope he chooses Kay Bailey Hutchison -I do think she would be great!
08-27-2008 10:15
Abbe wrote:
Sassy, I agree that Hillary should have been the candidate. I saw her speech last night in it's entirety. She did well, considering that she had nothing to work with. She had to point out her own accomplishments because Obama has none. I don't think she is "supporting" him any more than I think I am. In fact, I'm thinking about sticking one of those stickers on my car that says NObama and I hate sticking stuff on my car.
08-27-2008 10:13
Abbe wrote:
I think that Obama made the right choice in Biden and if Obama happens to win, I'd feel a lot better if Biden were his VP than some other inexperienced, unkown such as himself. I hope he doesn't win but he could.
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