Obama Clinton 08 and 12

I can't remember the title of the book, but I read that the real decision about Obama's running mate was between Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. One was to be Vice President and the other to be Secretary of State. Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine were secondary choices. What would have happened if they had gone with Hillary? One thing the book mentioned was that Biden would have turned down the Secretary of State offer. He would be President Pro Tempore of the Senate now. She would not have been blamed for Benghazi, but I don't think that has hurt her. I don't about her email situation as Vice President. Would President Obama have felt compelled to endorse her.?They would have had a closer working relationship that would have extended to the present day,
 
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I can't remember the title of the book, but I read that the real decision about Obama's running mate was between Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. One was to be Vice President and the other to be Secretary of State. Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine were secondary choices. What would have happened if they had gone with Hillary? One thing the book mentioned was that Biden would have turned down the Secretary of State offer. He would be President Pro Tempore of the Senate now. She would not have been blamed for Benghazi, but I don't think that has hurt her. I don't about her email situation as Vice President. Would President Obama have felt compelled to endorse her.?They would have had a closer working relationship that would have extended to the present day,

I personally think the President made the right call choosing Biden over Hillary for VP. She'd be a thorn in his ass as Vice President. If he were VP, she'd still run for President, the GOP would still try to destroy her politically, they'd just find some other nonsense to use against her. With that said, Obama wouldn't endorse her until she secured the nomination.
 
She probably would get at least some blame for Benghazi*; she was the obvious Democratic candidate for 2016, which is most of the reason the Republicans tried so hard to pin it on her specifically (they tried to pin it on Obama during the 2012 election, but after the debacle of Romney's presidential debate and then Obama's reelection, they focused it entirely on Hillary). No one took Biden seriously as a candidate outside of a brief period in early 2015 when the Anyone-But-Hillary wing of the Democratic Party was looking for alternative candidates; the Republicans would be happy to hit him, but the real target of the various Benghazi hearings/news reports/etc. was always the 2012 and 2016 elections. If he turns SoS down, then whatever miscellaneous Democratic foreign policy wonk they end up with will be even less interesting as a target (unless it's John Kerry, who they might target just for old times sake). Clinton is a much juicier target for right-wing media (who will feed the whole investigation) and any grandstanding Republican members of Congress (who will become the face of it). They could always use the excuse that she was unusually involved in foreign affairs for a VP (probably true).

Clinton is basically running on Obama's Third Term as it stands; being his VP would only strengthen that claim (and probably leave her less vulnerable to some of the left-wing attacks that Sanders supporters are currently using on her).

*All this assumes Benghazi goes as OTL; with a POD in 2008, who knows what butterflies might flap.
 
Didn't she not want it at all, and he actually had to convince her to take the SoS position. Hell, i am pretty sure Bill had to smooth everything out because she was really anti-Obama
 
I personally think the President made the right call choosing Biden over Hillary for VP. She'd be a thorn in his ass as Vice President. If he were VP, she'd still run for President, the GOP would still try to destroy her politically, they'd just find some other nonsense to use against her. With that said, Obama wouldn't endorse her until she secured the nomination.

Why do you say she would have been a thorn in his ass? What would she have done? Was she a thorn in his ass as Secretary of State.
 
Why do you say she would have been a thorn in his ass? What would she have done? Was she a thorn in his ass as Secretary of State.

I think as VP she would've expected to have a lot more influence on policy than she did as SoS, influence that the President wouldn't have given her. Plus, I can only see her accepting the Vice Presidency in the event that the Primaries are even closer than OTL and she does it for the sake of unity.
 
There was a small number of disgruntled Hillary supporters who backed McCain. Having Hillary on the ticket heals the wounds more and wins Obama Missouri.
 
There was a small number of disgruntled Hillary supporters who backed McCain. Having Hillary on the ticket heals the wounds more and wins Obama Missouri.

That number was very small. My parents were Hillary supporters who considered supporting McCain after she lost to Obama. They ended up voting for Obama though thanks to Sarah Palin and the financial crisis. I just never saw her or Obama as the types that would accept the Vice Presidency after such a close contest.
 
Book

I believe the book could either be Believer: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod or The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe. I like to reference these books in my political threads. They explain how Obama's running mate short list included:

  • Senator Joe Biden of Delaware
  • Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana
  • Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia
  • Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas
  • Senator Hillary Clinton of New York
I agree with dw93 about if Obama would have selected her as his running mate (and this is precisely the reason why she is at the bottom of the list), she would have demanded some sort of co-presidency in order to be on an even plain with Obama. I don't doubt she would have accepted the offer because OTL has shown us that she would have accepted any position closer to the presidency than senator, especially if it meant adding it to her resume or if fate/succession happened to favor her one day. Obama offered her Secretary of State in order to give her a feel for state visits/receptions and to tone down her aggressive foreign policy she had pre-2008. I don't agree with the idea that Biden would be President pro tempore of the United States Senate now but I don't doubt he would have been pre-2015. If as OTL the Democrats lose the Senate in 2014, he'll be President pro tempore until then and I think he'd retire after Beau passed away in May 2015. I doubt Hillary being Vice President prevents the email controversy but, given the different position the emails would discuss different subjects and she'd face a different level of scrutiny for them (the private email server was her preparing for a run in 2016). Obama gave Joe Biden his "blessings" to run for president in 2016 and I suspect he'd do likewise for Hillary in ATL.
 
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I don't agree with the idea that Biden would be President pro tempore of the United States Senate now but I don't doubt he would have been pre-2015. If as OTL the Democrats lose the Senate in 2014, he'll be President pro tempore until then and I think he'd retire after Beau passed away in May 2015.

Sorry I forgot about the Republican Senate. I try not to think of unpleasant things. He didn't resign as Vice President, when Beau died.Why would he have left the Senate?
 
Sorry I forgot about the Republican Senate. I try not to think of unpleasant things. He didn't resign as Vice President, when Beau died.Why would he have left the Senate?
He did not resign as vice president because the end of Obama's second term was less than two years away and he wanted to finish what he started. Without having a commitment as such, he'd feel he was getting too old (the same way he feels now about a run for presidency, unless he's persistent like McCain). Beau's passing was a determining factor for whether he wanted to run in 2016 and would likely have the same effect in ATL for his re-election for Senate.
 
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