Obama-Richardson: Will They Be the Democratic Ticket?

Political observers in some of America’s Western states have been floating the idea of an Obama-Richardson ticket since well before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President.

Of course, most of them were projecting—and hoping--that the ticket would be Richardson-Obama. Despite his Washington experience and wide-ranging resume, however, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson quickly saw his presidential campaign overshadowed and overwhelmed by Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s high-profile battle.

The primary season finally will drag to an end in June, and then it will be up to the delegates and superdelegates to pick the Democrats’ standard bearer. Likewise, it will be up to the candidates and their campaign staffs to not alienate voters by endlessly playing “gotcha” politics with each other in the long, weary weeks until the Democratic convention in Denver, Aug. 25-28.

Most pundits predict that Senators Clinton and Obama will end up roughly splitting the remaining primary delegates, and no clear nominee will emerge in June. This projected stalemate already has resulted in some Obama supporters demanding that Hillary Clinton drop out of the race. And some Hillary Clinton supporters have responded by demanding that Barack Obama drop out.

Alarmed party leaders now worry that nasty rounds of charge and countercharge from the Clinton and Obama campaigns will alienate many voters and drive them toward John McCain or cause them to just stay home during the November general election.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has suggested that the Democrats should stage a “superdelegate primary” in June to break the Obama-Clinton deadlock, so one candidate can emerge with clear sailing and avoid a bitter showdown at the convention. Party leaders including Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. Harry Reid recently were considering this and other strategies for ending the potential impass.

No matter which one finally gets the go-ahead, however, international credentials will be absolutely crucial to the next Administration. Barack Obama is a political rookie on the world stage. As a former First Lady, Hillary Clinton has been a lot closer to the action. Yet, much of her experience can be summarized as flying around in White House jets and dealing at ceremonial and informal levels with a wide range of major and minor issues. That counts for something, of course, and could shorten her learning curve in the Oval Office. Yet neither Democratic candidate actually has the kind of down-and-dirty international experience they will need to cope with the diplomatic and military disasters the Bush Administration will leave behind next January.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary and U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson could be an excellent Vice President for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. He has been an able negotiator during dangerous situations in North Korea, Iraq and Cuba. But so could one other former Presidential candidate who has been a strong background player in this election: Retired four-star Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who was NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000. Clark has extensive combat experience and held numerous command posts during his 34-year Army career. The next President may well need someone with this wide range of experience to help oversee getting the U.S. out of Iraq.

Indeed, Richardson and Clark likely will both be needed in some major capacity by the next Administration, even if the next President turns out to be John McCain.

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Fleeing McCain and ‘More of the Same’?

An angry registered Republican told me this the day after the Texas primary gave John McCain clear sailing to the GOP nomination: “If McCain is elected President, I may move to Canada. He’ll just bring four more years of the same. We can’t afford that.”

He was particularly outraged that McCain had gone straight to the White House the day after the Texas primary and gotten George W’s praises and blessings, rather than distancing himself from Bush’s deeply unpopular Administration.

The Republican, a young, pro-life Internet technician, admitted he had crossed party lines and voted for Barack Obama despite the Illinois Senator’s limited and liberal voting record. “His speeches inspire me,” he said. “Have you listened to how well he speaks? How positive his messages are? I think he can bring Americans together and get us moving forward again. I’m just sick and mad about what has happened to my party under George Bush.”

A day before the Texas primary, I had another unexpected encounter with an upset Republican. I was in a bank, making some changes to one of my accounts. When the process was completed, the banker looked at me and asked very quietly: “Have you voted yet?” (In Texas, as well as some other states, registered voters can go the polls starting more than a week before the official primary or general election day.) After I nodded yes, something odd happened. The banker pressed me with another question, trying (without being too impolite) to find out how I had voted.

“I voted for change,” I told her, leaving her to guess whether I had supported Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

She smiled. “I voted for Bush twice. But this time, I voted for change, too,” she admitted quietly. “And experience.”

“That’s code for ‘Hillary,'” I said.

She nodded. “In our bank meetings, we keep saying things are going to have to change soon. We can’t afford what’s happening to the economy, and neither can our customers.”

While her candor and vote pleased me, it also struck me as odd that a banker would reveal this much during a penny ante transaction. The big picture, however, quickly came clear after I got home and did a little Web surfing. Many economists increasingly are worried that the current recession may trigger a wave of bank failures that would rival the savings and loan meltdown of 1989.

For example, CNNMoney.com reported: “The banks most at risk for failure are generally smaller ones, not the huge global banks hit by billions in writedowns from subprime mortgage problems.” The small banks, CNNMoney pointed out, “are big players in the business of construction loans made to homebuilders—loans that were backed by new homes now worth a fraction of the original estimated value.”

I had just driven home from a small bank in a small city where new housing construction has boomed for several years but recently has slowed to a standstill. With the economy very much on her mind, my worried banker had crossed party lines and voted for her number-one issue, her pocketbook and her job.

Now that the price of gasoline is pushing quickly toward $4 or more a gallon and the endless Iraq War is still staggering forward on mountains of borrowed cash, America is tilting toward economic disaster. And average citizens in the heartland are both feeling it and fearing it.

Bold new leadership is needed now. But now can’t start happening until next January, when a Democrat, chosen by voters from both parties, takes the oath of office.

Yes, we will need words that inspire us. And we will need experienced leadership that can help pull us together quickly and show us how to make sacrifices for the common good: our survival.

We will need both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the White House in January, 2009.

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Ralph Nader: The Political One-Car Accident

I used to admire Ralph Nader. He actually saved my life in 1966, after I read his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile.

I was a semi-penniless college student driving a worn-out 1962 Chevrolet Corvair, which Nader prominently featured in his first chapter, titled “The One-Car Accident.” I had bought the car very cheaply from a gas station near campus, and, since I didn’t have much cash, the seller gladly had recorded the shady sale as “five used tires” on my gasoline credit card.

I soon realized, however, that I had an unstable beast on my hands. The engine was in the rear, which made the Corvair feel as if it were about to flip around tail-first any time I had to make fast stops or maneuver quickly in traffic. On wet or snowy roads, I drove with white knuckles and death-grips on the steering wheel, fearful that the heavy rear-end suddenly would start oscillating and whip around to the front. Until I read Nader’s book, I had no idea that the Corvair was hypersensitive to air-pressure differentials and temperature changes in its front and rear tires. And I was unaware that the car’s suspension system had serious design flaws which sometimes caused crashes.

Soon after reading Unsafe at Any Speed and surviving several near accidents, I got rid of the compact deathtrap and bought a tank: a 1958 Dodge with huge fins rising at its back and a massive engine in front. That car was as big as a parade float and fully loaded with the best Detroit steel and chrome. For as long as it lasted, I felt relatively safe at almost any speed.

So, thank you, Ralph Nader, for getting me out of that Corvair with my life and limbs intact. And now, shame on you, for screwing up the 2000 presidential election. By jumping in and stealing much-needed votes from Al Gore, you set the stage for King George and the neocons’ endless, needless war in Iraq. Double-shame on you, Mr. Nader, for stealing votes away from John Kerry in 2004, when Kerry really needed all the help he could get in his torpedoed attempt to oust Bush. And now, triple-shame on you for thinking your laudable war on corporate greed and corporate power should become the central issue in this year’s presidential race. Yes, it’s an important issue—one issue that definitely needs addressing. But it’s just one among hundreds of other pressing concerns.

You will get some votes. Many Americans are fed up with both parties and are paying scant attention to either side. And you are free to run for high office in our marvelous—and marvelously flawed—system. But you won’t win. In a really tight contest, you might siphon off just enough votes from an Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket to let John McCain and his running mate slip through the back door.

Is this what you want? Do you hope historians will credit you as the man who gave us at least 12 consecutive years of conservative Republicanism and helped make the current American economy unsafe at any speed? Are you secretly happy that our once-vaunted international power and reputation have spun around into a one-car accident?

What can you offer that will help our nation heal and recover in this time of crisis? A corporate-free chicken in every pot? Two pimped-out Corvairs--on blocks--in every garage?