DailyKos poll: Will you support a Clinton/Obama ticket?

Diarist Yashua says:

Personally, I hope that Senators Obama and Clinton run together (I don't care in which order). Now that would be a historic White House. That would be way for us to be inspired.

Here's the poll and reader comments.

Clinton supporter: Clinton-Obama ticket is possible

Joel Ferguson, a Michigan cochair for the Clinton campaign, said:

It’s possible, said Joel Ferguson, a cochair for Hillary Clinton’s Michigan campaign.

Ferguson said Clinton’s Democratic rival Barack Obama has appeal among young voters – especially young African Americans – that would make him a potent vote-getter as a vice presidential running mate.

“There’s a shot at that happening,” he said after taping public television’s weekly show, “Off the Record.”

Right Matters: how likely is a Clinton-Obama ticket?

Conservatives weigh in on this question:

If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, will she have to make Barack Obama her running mate?

Presumably enough harsh words have been spoken that she won't offer the vice-presidential nomination to him unless she has to. But it may be that so many harsh words have been spoken that she will have to do it in the interests of party unity--particularly given how racially divided the party is likely to be by the end of these primaries.

Whether it would be in Obama's interest to accept is another question. If the ticket wins, he may figure he will effectively be the number three official in the White House, behind both the president and her husband. If the ticket loses, he has the examples of the last two losing Democratic vice-presidential nominees as a cautionary tale. Joe Lieberman went nowhere in 2004, and John Edwards has gone nowhere this year.

So how likely is a Clinton-Obama ticket? And how strong would it be?

Read the discussion here.

Poll: 3 out of 5 Democratic voters want Clinton and Obama on same ticket

According to Bloomberg:

Clinton leads Obama, 42 percent to 33 percent, down from the 24-point advantage she held in early December. Three out of five supporters of each candidate say they would like Clinton or Obama, if nominated, to choose the other as a running mate...

The survey finds that 62 percent of Democrats would like Clinton to pick Obama as her running mate if she is the nominee; 60 percent say they would want Obama to pick Clinton.

``You need to have complementary people,'' says Marian Dondero, 53, an elementary school administrator in the Philadelphia suburb of Wyncote, Pennsylvania, who plans to vote for Clinton. ``She's really intelligent and straightforward and she's a good problem solver. He lifts your imagination.''

Recent clashes between the candidates may dim the possibility of a shared ticket. During a Jan. 21 debate in South Carolina, the two battled over their past actions as lawyers, their votes as lawmakers and what they described as misrepresentations of their views by the other's campaign.

For all the talk on Internet discussion boards of Obama supporters who say adamantly that they will not support Hillary Clinton if she's the party's nominee, there seems to be little evidence of this in the national poll: 60 percent of Obama supporters want Clinton as vice president. That's only 2 percent less than the number of Clinton supporters who want Obama as veep. There's a lot more party unity out there than one would imagine based on the blogosphere rants.

Cognitive Dissonance: 7 reasons for a Clinton/Obama ticket

The Cognitive Dissonance blog advances 7 reasons to support a ticket of Obama and Clinton...

1. Experience AND Change: Some voters think with their hearts and some think with their head. It’s difficult to predict which way the wind blows on this issue and even worse, it’s always subject to change...

2. Clinton/Obama could equal a Democratic White House for the next 16 years...

3. The Democrat/Independent/Young voter alliance : Without a doubt one of the main draws about Obama are the indepedent voters he draws. It’s good to have bi-partisian support, but at the end of the day Obama will need democratic voters AND the democratic machine behind him to win...

4. The Campaign Machine: One of the reason’s why Obama has benefited and Clinton has been harmed during the primary season is because primary elections and general elections require a completely different type of campaign...

5. Attacking from a Defensive position: I’m making this point descriptively and not normatively. Republicans will have to watch their step when going after an African American/Female candidate...

6. the Huckabee factor: I think it’s becoming increasingly likely that Huckabee will become the Vice President for whoever is the nominee, unless he is the nominee in which this point is even stronger. A lot of people like Mike Huckabee..

7. The Downticket races: Many democrats argue that if Clinton is the nominee, downticket races will be harmed. I don’t think that’s true but address it in a later piece. But even if that were true, people overlook the campaign structure that is necessary to win a state...

Read the whole post.

Big Sven makes the case for Clinton/Obama

Here's what one very articulate netizen has to say:

Obamatron-

Hi, yourself. The contest between Clinton and Obama will be all about "ideas or issues". In fact, you've hit it squarely on the head.

One of the reasons that Obama and Clinton supporters often seem to be speaking a different language is because they are. They have a diametrically opposed view of what their candidates should be about.

Clinton looks at political power, and tends to collect supporters (such as myself) who also look at political power, through the prism of specific policies and actions- what bills will we propose today, what policies will we put forward today. It's a pragmatic, checklist-based view of leadership. FDR, for all his eloquence, had this style.

Obama looks at the process it terms of what ideas and long term goals get you up in the morning, and what are the goals of the people supporting you. He thinks that if you have the right vision, the details will work themselves out. Churchill had this style.

But it's why he's ultimately not really excited talking about policy details. And she hates the touchy feely stuff that he's good at. It's also why, when she had her "emotional moment" it manifested itself in the statement that "Some of us know what we will do on day one, and some of us haven't really thought that through enough." Because for her, that is the essential characteristic of a leader.

I totally understand why some people chose Obama's ideological (note: not partisan) style over Clinton's more pragmatic approach. Pragmatism isn't exciting, and it's often not motivating. But for some of us (a plurality in NH yesterday), the comfort of knowing that Ms. Clinton already has her "to do" list for day one is what we *love* about her.

So you're right- people will be voting on ideas or issues over the next couple of months. And their will determine who we have representing us in the fall.

One final point- the difference in their leadership style makes me think they would make a *great* Prez/Veep team. There's probably already too much blood spilt, but one can always hope.

What do Seattlites think of Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton?

See what the discussion looks like on the Slog.

AllHipHop discussion: Clinton and Obama getting friendlier?

Says one forum poster on AllHipHop:

I was watching the debate last night and I noticed a few things that have changed in the last couple months between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Like if you mentioned a Clinton/Obama ticket a few months ago, there'd be no way. They really did not like each other... but they seemed to be more friendly now, and willing to side with each other to change the regime in the United States.

Ellen Goodman: Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton?

Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman has a dream ... dream ticket, that is. She wants to see both Clinton and Obama on the same ticket, in either order (though she says it's harder to imagine Clinton taking the vice presidential spot). Here's her column:

Up to now, you will notice, I haven't said who would be at the top of the ticket. Which is where my little attack of idealism may stumble.

In America, as Hillary noted in the debate, we put "the head of state and the head of government together in one person." Frankly, I think of Hillary as prime minister and Obama as royal philosopher. If Hillary wins, it's easier to imagine the younger candidate taking the second spot. If Obama wins, it's harder to see her settling for Number One Observatory Circle after eight years in the White House. But at the same time, she has had a whole lot of experience partnering with a president.

This game plan depends, I am fully aware, on Super Tuesday. It also depends on whether the country is, in fact, eager for something different, in a "post-polarization" frame of mind.

But Obama said, "I run so that a year from today there's a chance that the world will look at America differently and that America will look at itself differently." And Clinton told Tyra Banks which reality show she'd choose: "I think it would have to be 'Dancing with the Stars,' especially if I could have one of those really good partners."

Against the low, incessant, chant for change, do I hear a T-E-A-M? Or only a dream?

Read the whole thing here.

A worry for Obama: are too many of his supporters Hillary haters?

On Marc Ambinder today there's a most insightful comment from Michael C. He writes:

Obama has a serious problem in that some of his major support is from hillary and bill haters: whether it is andrew sullivan or chris matthews or David geffin or the folks who blog here the negativity has begun to seriously overshadow the idea of his being a uniter. He says loud and clear on the debate last night that some of his supporters are over-zealous and this morning they still spout this tired clinton bashing. How does he run a positive campaign if the folks on the front line blogisphere can't reign in the hate? Remember they are the same party, the same wing of the party and nearly identical voting records. Hillary's supporters aren't here everyday saying they won't vote obama if he prevails but obama's people here are ready to vote pro-war republican or stay home. I have 16 years of love for Hillary but will be proud to vote dem for obama if she does not prevail. I hope the hatred doesn't ruin your health.

Making mean-spirited (and often unfair) personal attacks against Hillary Clinton is a favorite sport, of course, for many political pundits on the left and right. Obama's supporters are not the only ones to dwell on Clinton's alleged flaws. However, too many of them have failed to note the tension between (a) their own supposed support for a candidate whose message is to bring people together and overcome polarization, and (b) their hateful rhetoric based on leftover animosity from the 1990s, an entirely different era.

It's to Obama's considerable credit that he seems able to attract supporters from independents and the Republican party. Unfortunately, Obama seems to have attracted many supporters who back his candidacy primarily as an "anyone but Hillary" stand. Those supporters don't so much believe in Obama's message as they want to relish in one more angry, bitter attack on the Clinton family. They turn support for Obama into a tool for venting their partisanship or ideological warfare. Or, in the case of Andrew Sullivan, support for Obama is a way of punishing Republicans for not being conservative enough. Sullivan writes:

On the role of government, I'm far to his [Obama's] right. But after the GOP in the Bush years, I don't feel like punishing the Democrats for being big government. I feel like punishing the Republicans. They're the ones who've committed treason against conservatism, not the Democrats.

A successful Obama candidacy alone might not overcome polarized politics if it is won only by the support of Hillary haters, crypto Republicans, and anti-Bush conservatives. An Obama victory won by smearing the Clintons would taint the message that he represents a genuine way of moving beyond polarization: core Democrats would suspect that he really represents a repudiation of their values while Obama's newly won Republican supporters would not move an inch to help Obama actually attain his policy agenda.

However, if Obama were to share a ticket for the presidency with Clinton (either on the top or bottom half of a united ticket), then a vote for Obama would send a powerful signal that it is time for the country to move beyond polarization and move forward to help create a better, stronger, safer America. True, some Clinton haters would never vote for a ticket with the Clinton name attached because they are unwilling to let go of their vast reservoirs of anger and resentment. But for all those independents and Republicans who are inspired by Obama's speeches to come together and who are healed enough from the 1990s to look forward to the future, then a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket could be exactly the agent of change our country needs.

Clinton and Obama: complementary archetypes

On Huffington Post, Susan Faludi writes one of the most enlightening articles on the politics of Clinton's gender that I've ever read. Here's part:

The greatest show of nurturance those women could possibly evince was steeling themselves to stand in that line all over again and make that hectoring phone call to yet another doctor, even if they were perceived as a "bitch" by the receptionist on the other end.

In their appraisals of Hillary Clinton, the pollsters and pundits who have not gotten beyond that mommy/ball-buster teeter-totter narrative of American womanhood also have not begun to diagnose gender dynamics beyond the perspective of the little boy and his mom. A lot of female voters, however, may be factoring in a whole other kind of female archetype, whose wet eyes do not signal weakness and whose flashes of anger do not signal coldness, only pragmatic perseverance.

If pundits ever tried to understand what some female voters know about the complexity of women's lives, they might begin to comprehend the appeal of a female candidate whose ethic of caring and whose posture of femininity derive from responsibilities beyond the maternal. And then they might begin to understand the affection of women in New Hampshire who put her over the top.

If Clinton draws from the archetype of feminine pragmatic perseverance, then it's appropriate for her campaign's message that she is a "hands on" manager, a believer in action as well as words, a doer more than a speech-giver, etc.

Obama's emphasis is on inspiration, vision, optimism, speech as a bringer of action, and bringing people together to recognize common unity. His strength complements Clinton's, and would help to provide balance for a working government coalition. He draws on the archetype of masculine prophetic wisdom.

This primary season, many Democrats are finding themselves faced with a difficult choice because they see both Clinton's and Obama's strengths as important for government leadership. Together they make a stronger team than separate.

Anne Rice: Clinton-Obama is my dream ticket

Popular novelist Anne Rice endorses Clinton, declaring that she's "ecstatic" about Clinton's win in New Hampshire primary. She says she's hoping for a "Clinton/Obama" ticket.