Should we call it “the trial balloon that quickly popped?” New York Senator Hillary Clinton, whose bigwig supporters — including her husband Bill — have touted a Clinton-Obama Democratic ticket’s glories is now expressing surprise that the talk (which started from her side) has taken on “a life of its own.”
It was given life by the Clinton side, Obama repeatedly and today bluntly turned it down and pointed out the contradictions between talking about him for No. 2 when Clinton has called him unprepared to answer a red phone and not yet “over the threshold” (like her and GOP future nominee Sen. John McCain.) So now you get this exchange between Clinton and ABC News’ Jake Trapper:
Her answer was quite strange, considering it’s been her camp fueling this buzz.
TAPPER: “Senator, how do you reconcile your suggestion that maybe Senator Obama would be appropriate to be on a Clinton-Obama ticket while at the same time you are suggesting that he isn’t prepared to be commander-in-chief?”
CLINTON: “Well this thing has really been given a life of its own. You know, a lot of Democrats like us both and have been very hopeful that they wouldn’t have to make a choice, but obviously Democrats have to make a choice and I’m looking forward to getting the nomination. And it’s premature to talk about whoever might be on whose ticket, but I believe that I am ready to serve on day one.”
It sounds as if the trial balloon deflated once analysts began wondering how Obama could ever be offered second spot, given the way he is being described by Clinton as essentially an empty suit who makes good speeches.
Also: Obama’s comments addressed this issue and he noted that he’s the one ahead in pledged delegates. In other words: it was opening a can of worms for the Clintons and their campaign — so they are now moving on.
But memories of the trial balloon — which some contend was floated to give the impression that Clinton is front-runner — will persist.
And it’s virtually certain there will be a move to get some kind of unity ticket — but it’s likely it’ll fail, given increasing bitterness between each campaign and their followers.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.