Candace

Talmadge

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June 9, 2008

Please, Sen. Obama: Don’t Listen to GOP ‘Advice’ 

Memo to Republicans and other conservatives: Put a sock in it and scrap all the unsolicited and false advice to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. He’s doing just fine without it. 

Never mind that Republicans failed to convince Democrats to make New York Sen. Hillary Clinton their presidential contender this year. Not that they didn’t try. They began last year, when Karl Rove did his best to convince anyone fool enough to listen to him that she would be a formidable opponent for the GOP. 

Republican partisans in the media even went so far as to urge fellow GOP travelers to vote in Democratic primaries once Arizona Sen. John McCain secured the Republican nomination in February. In some instances, this cross-over voting violated state election laws. Small wonder Republicans are so obsessed with voter fraud. They seem to know all about it. 

The Clinton voter crossover ploy ultimately failed, although it did delay Obama’s victory. One of the main reasons he could not seal the deal much earlier was all the faux Democrats giving their primary votes to Clinton with absolutely no intention of casting a ballot for her in this fall’s general election. 

This trend was especially obvious in caucus states like Texas, where Clinton edged her rival in the primary balloting but was trounced in the caucuses. It was easy for Republicans to vote in the Texas primary but impossible for them to caucus as Democrats. Hence the disparity between the results. 

Now that Obama has cinched the Democratic nomination, these same Republicans are urging him to tap Clinton for the No. 2 spot, supposedly to unify the party and make him a stronger contender in November. 

Obama might as well ask the fox for pointers on theft-proofing the hen house, too. 

Give it a rest. Any so-called advice proffered by a Republican will not be in Obama’s best interests. It won’t be in the Democratic Party’s best interests, either. That realization explains why the majority of Democrats did not vote for Clinton when presented with a credible choice. 

Clinton was never a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination, except perhaps in her own mind and in the feverish fantasies of conservative pundits and talk-show hosts. The latter would love to have torn her apart during the general election campaign. Instead they face an opponent who terrifies them, so they bleat loudly and incessantly. 

In naming his vice-presidential running mate, Obama faces yet another test of the leadership and acumen that have taken him to this point.  It will be fascinating to watch him make his selection. The VP picks of preceding presidents sometimes are particularly telling. The current president’s father, for instance, revealed his insecurities by selecting an utterly clueless lightweight as his No. 2. 

If a lifelong Democrat has the right to offer a suggestion and a caution, let it not be Clinton. Her support will be lukewarm at best. As Obama’s running mate, she will be in a far better position to undermine him in much the same way that Bill Clinton hogged the limelight and shot his mouth off time and again, repeatedly damaging his wife’s campaign. 

Obama does not need help like that.  

Then there are all those sound bites of Clinton claiming she and McCain have the experience for the presidency but not Obama. This footage won’t be nearly as effective in fall campaign commercials if Clinton is not the VP nominee, so it’s no surprise that GOP pundits want Clinton in place in order to use it. 

While he and his staff have made some mistakes along the way, Obama on the whole has run a top-notch primary campaign, another reason for his success. With his track record to date, there’s no reason to assume he won’t make another solid choice of running mate, all the GOP hot air notwithstanding. 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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