Opinion: Another Ticket online chat unfolds
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The Ticket’s Don Frederick and Andrew Malcolm plus Johanna Neuman of The Times’ Washington bureau had another live online politics chat with readers today, this one on Super Tuesday’s results. And right away Tony asked, ‘Do you think endorsements mean much these days?’
‘Vastly overrated, Tony, as the Teddy deal showed,’ replied Don Frederick.
‘I used to think they were meaningless,’ added Andrew Malcolm, ‘and then drank the Kool-Aid of the Ted Kennedy endorsement. But, boy, was I wrong there. He didn’t even deliver his home state to Obama and he was supposed to help with Latinos, which he didn’t do.’
Saigonbob asked, ‘Why does experience make a difference? Bill had none as Gov of Ark.’ Don praised Saigonbob’s blog, then added: ‘Beg to differ a bit on Bill ... he used the governorship to ....
make himself a major player in Dem politics during the 80s, as I’m sure you recall. Founding member of the DLC, right. Now, he was lacking on the foreign front, but that’s true of so many pols.’
Andrew added: Bill ‘did have state chief exec experience which Amers seem to prefer. 4 of the last 5 presidents have been govs and the fifth one (Bush I) was a VP. Only 2 sitting Sens been elected president in last 100 yrs and Kennedy was the last. So we’ll likely make history this time unless Romney pulls it out.’
ohgosh asked if ‘another month of bare-knuckle campaigning will take a toll on the candidates ‘friendship’ and prevent a combination ticket for the white house.’
Said Don:
‘good question about the toll of the continuing Demo fight. Be interesting to see if they each get tougher or decide that it’s best to dial it back. Regardless, I have been, and will continue to be, skeptical of the prospects for the ‘dream tix.’
‘No way Hillary would take the Veep slot, is there? Besides, little percentage for Obama to offer her it, I think. He would look for a woman, I think, but the governor of Kansas (I forget how to spell her last name) or Claire McCaskill, the Missouri senator, are more likely -- each backs him and helped him a lot in their states Tuesday. The odds are better that Obama might get tabbed as Hillary’s Veep, though he might want to take a pass on that. Gore’s experience in that slot wasn’t great, right?’
kap noted: ‘Johanna. I agree with Don that a combined Hillary-Barack tix seems unlikely (or vice versa). Both need a southerner to pick up extra votes. I sure hope they keep it civilized in the next month or so. No need for competing Democrats to [do] Repub. work of tearing down the potential next Democratic President.’
And Johanna replied: ‘yep, especially if mccain is the gop nominee ... he actually said this morning that he thought clinton and obama were tilting further to the left every day, which may be an early hint of how he intends to run (and win) against them.’
A complete chat transcript is available here.
-- Andrew Malcolm