The plot thickens

From the latest at the Wall Street Journal:

Concession Expected Saturday;
Obama Camp Discounts VP Talk

By JACKIE CALMES
June 5, 2008; Page A1

WASHINGTON -- Supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton suggested she would like to be Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, but close advisers to Sen. Obama are signaling that an Obama-Clinton ticket is highly unlikely.

Some in the Clinton camp also noted a possible deal-breaker for a party-unity ticket: Bill Clinton may balk at releasing records of his business dealings and big donors to his presidential library.

Sen. Clinton scheduled a gathering for her staff at her house Saturday, where she will end her campaign and concede the nomination, three advisers said.

A day after his history-making declaration that he had enough delegates for the nomination, Sen. Obama on Wednesday named a search team for a vice-presidential running mate. The first African-American nominee for a major party tapped two high-profile supporters—Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President Kennedy, and Eric Holder, President Clinton's former deputy attorney general. They join Jim Johnson, a former Fannie Mae chairman, who had already been enlisted to lead the search and vet potential choices.

Sens. Obama and Clinton briefly exchanged greetings Wednesday at a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where they both spoke. (Please see article.) They also held brief phone conversations Sunday and Tuesday nights that advisers described as the first steps in a dance of rapprochement.
RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Mr. Clinton refused during his wife's 17-month presidential campaign to release records of his financial dealings and details of his presidential library's major donors. Even if Mr. Clinton did open his records as part of the traditional vice-presidential vetting process, the unprecedented complications he would pose for an Obama White House as the vice president's spouse go deeper and broader than his personal records, Democrats on both sides say.

A former president's global travels for his humanitarian foundation, speeches here and abroad for which he has received up to a quarter-million dollars, financial deals and everyday utterances could pose "a whole host" of conflicts with the policies of an Obama administration, Democrats say.

Referring to a potential vice-presidential slot for Sen. Clinton, a senior Obama adviser says: "The more this gets vetted the less likely it becomes."

Sen. Clinton would present problems of her own for Sen. Obama, advisers in both camps say: As half of the couple that has dominated in the Democratic Party and Washington for 16 years, she would "completely undermine the Obama message'' of change and new direction in politics, as one Clinton confidant put it.

That could well override the political advantages that some other supporters have been promoting, notably her fellow New York Democrats in Congress: That Sen. Clinton could help Sen. Obama win the support of women, blue-collar workers, seniors and white men -- all groups that the Illinois senator had trouble with during their nomination race.

Several advisers said Sen. Clinton decided Wednesday to end her campaign after consulting supporters in Congress including the fellow New Yorkers, along with Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio.

The campaign later put out the statement saying that she will host an event in Washington Saturday "to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity." The date changed from Friday to Saturday "to accommodate more of Senator Clinton's supporters who want to attend."

Obama advisers say Sen. Clinton should have as much time as she needs to decide how and when to quit the race. But some of his supporters are irritated at what they interpret as pressure on Sen. Obama from her side to offer her the No.2 spot.

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, said Wednesday he is starting a "dream ticket" effort for party unity. Mr. Johnson said publicly that Sen. Clinton had blessed his effort. Lanny Davis, another prominent Clinton advocate, said he is starting a petition drive seeking a place for her on the ticket.

Several Obama aides said the two supporters aren't the best ambassadors for a Clinton vice-presidential candidacy. Robert Johnson referred during the race to Sen. Obama's acknowledged drug use as a young man, while Mr. Davis has frequently lambasted Sen. Obama on cable television talk-shows.

Sen. Obama, in an interview on NBC, counseled both sides to relax. "We just completed a very hard-fought contest," he said. "She needs to catch her breath. I need to catch mine. I think all our supporters need to just sit back and let things sink in. We're gonna go through a process in the vice-presidential search where I look at a whole range of options."

In her remarks to members of AIPAC, a leading Jewish lobby, Sen. Clinton assured the audience that Sen. Obama "will be a good friend to Israel." That assurance was significant given many American Jews' opposition to Sen. Obama for seeming to them to be too sympathetic to Palestinians and Iran. The Jewish population, while small, is concentrated in states crucial to the election, in particular Florida.

Sen. Obama's own speech was well-received, and he was accompanied by one of the country's best known Jewish political leaders, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Mr. Emanuel later was among several members of Congress who endorsed Sen. Obama, as the Democratic Party establishment embraced the first-term Illinois senator as the nominee. Mr. Emanuel made his name as a top Clinton White House official, but he is a friend and ally of his fellow Chicagoan, Sen. Obama.

By mid-day Wednesday, Sen. Obama's campaign said he had 2,159.5 delegates -- more than the 2,118 needed for the nomination -- to Sen. Clinton's 1,927, a difference of 232.5 delegates.

The candidates split Tuesday's final primaries, with Sen. Obama winning Montana and Sen. Clinton South Dakota. He won 15 pledged delegates to her 16. What put him over the top Tuesday was a rush of endorsements from 55.5 superdelegates, elected officials and other party leaders who can vote for whomever they choose at the Democratic convention. Many superdelegates had waited for the end of the primaries and caucuses to announce their choice.

Democrats in both camps Wednesday criticized Sen. Clinton's speech Tuesday night, at a valedictory rally in New York City. Some complained because she didn't concede the race. Others grumbled that beyond a brief tribute to Sen. Obama's "extraordinary race," she dwelled on her own successes in the race's final stretch and continued to suggest she'd be the more electable nominee.

A defender of Sen. Clinton's stance, longtime Democratic strategist Michael Berman, said, "I have little patience for those who criticize Hillary Clinton for not endorsing Senator Obama last night."

Recalling his own late-night encounter with Hubert Humphrey hours after the 1968 Democratic nominee had conceded to Republican Richard Nixon, Mr. Berman added, "Major candidates for president are by definition great dreamers. When their dreams are quashed they should be given the courtesy of a little time to internalize their loss."

Many Clinton supporters seemed united in believing Sen. Clinton would accept the vice presidency. They argued it has become an important post in the modern era, most recently with Democrat Al Gore and Republican Dick Cheney -- "from funerals to fundamentals," as Mr. Emanuel put it.

But some supporters criticized the efforts to push Sen. Obama's hand. They said it could backfire, or make him look weak if he acceded unwillingly. Sen. Clinton told fellow New Yorkers in Congress on Tuesday that she would be open to the second spot.

"She is not campaigning and there's no deal-breaker because there's no deal," Clinton campaign strategist Geoff Garin said. "She is not encouraging any campaigning. But as she told the New York delegation, she would entertain anything that would help secure a Democratic victory in November."

Some Democrats say Bill Clinton is privately pressing her case to be on an Obama ticket, even as he is encouraging her to hang tough and not concede the presidential race, to increase her leverage. But one insider countered, "His importance in this is completely exaggerated. She's going to figure it out for herself."

For Sen. Clinton to be considered, she would have to undergo an invasive vetting of both Clintons' private and public affairs, just like other recent vice-presidential aspirants, say veterans of the process. They said it would likely require Mr. Clinton to reveal donors to his library in Little Rock, Ark., which have included the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Middle Eastern businessmen, as well as details of his confidential business dealings.

In April, he did end a relationship with Yucaipa Cos., an investment firm run by billionaire friend Ron Burkle that has had a partnership with the ruler of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Obama vetters "are going to say, 'You have to give us the list of library donors, and that's a deal-breaker if you don't,'" said one longtime Clinton confidant. "I don't think the former president will agree to it."

Sen. Obama probably won't announce a running mate for a while, perhaps waiting as long as August, a supporter said. The Democratic convention is Aug. 25-28 in Denver. His campaign and the three-person search team will draw up a list of possible choices and test Sen. Obama's support in different regions and demographic groups, to decide which potential running mates could best help him, this person said.


Well here's what I think:
1) Who cares how much money Bill Clinton made while lecturing on the private circuit? Seriously. It's okay for everyone else to make money, isn't it? (How much did Al Gore make for that stupid movie? And he got the damn Nobel for it.)
2) Obama is arrogant and condescending. He has been from the very beginning. "We'll just give Hillary a little time to absorb her loss."
3) Why does he need Caroline Kennedy on a team to help him pick a VP? Do I even need to explain this???
4) Here's the problem: The Clinton's didn't work out a contingency plan for what might happen should that request for Bill's library donor records become an issue. The fact that he is refusing will probably cost Hillary the VP slot. So, I ask, why in the heck did she even run? Did they think they were going to be immune and above the law AGAIN and just ASSUME she would have the nomination in the bag? Apparently so. Shame on you, Bill. You and the Obama camp both have assisted in kicking your wife in the teeth.