Hillary for VP?

Reportedly, that’s what Ralph Nader thinks will happen. It would be the Kennedyesque thing to do, after all: to join forces with one’s very own LBJ. It wouldn’t be the end of the world either; compared to Biden, Bayh, or Kaine, Hillary almost looks good. [I still think Maria Shriver would be a better choice, if only so that Arnold might become the Second Lady. But don’t count on Obama thinking that far outside the box.]

It’s another opportunity missed. Thanks to George Bush and Dick Cheney and their wars, we had a chance this year genuinely to change course -- somewhat. There was even a candidate, John Edwards, who might have led the charge. [Who knew, while the primaries were on, that had he won the primaries, a Clintonesque fling with a New Age floozy would most likely, do him in – notwithstanding the fact that, years ago, John McCain behaved even more unconscionably towards his own distressed wife, when he flung with the beer distributor’s daughter who’s been funding him ever since?] What became clear by Super Tuesday was that that opportunity was missed; that, in 2008, voters will only again have the chance to do what they failed to do in 2004 -- replace a criminal clique of manifest incompetents with competent, mainstream stewards of a declining empire.

Even so, Obama was the better choice over Hillary – not because his politics are better, they’re about the same, but because he was good for edging the Clintons off the political stage and perhaps also for dispatching some of their more dreadful functionaries. [Already, it’s clear that that is not going to happen.] There was even a chance, albeit a slim one, that, if we the people were to rise to our historic responsibilities, Clintonism too might fade away under an Obama administration – to be replaced by something a little less “liberal” Republican. If Nader is right -- if, as a Caroline advisee, Obama waxes Kennedyesque in his VP selection -- then it will increase the likelihood that that opportunity too will be missed.