We both know that american politics doesn't work that way.
It may have been possible back in the days of the political machines that used back room politics to decide who was going to run (Daily in chicago etc), but that has been broken since Johnson in the democrats and since schwubbia in the republicans (with the evangelicals demanding more than the table scraps thrown by the party).
The way I see it is that what we saw in New Hampshire was old voters basing their votes on residual bigotry:
... when they got in the booth, those that professed to be color blind outside the booth voted against Obama's color (with the rationalization that he would not be electable in the racist south, if they needed one) ...
... and when they looked at Hillary, those that profess to be equal rights supporters outside the booth voted for Bill (with the rationalization that he would run things) ...
And this residual bigotry was sufficient to swing the vote to Hillary.
It is a strange world when bigotry makes Hillary a more electable candidate because she is still married to Bill (although it will lead to inevitable jokes about who "wears the pants ... we know Bill doesn't ... ").
Now, on the rational side, if we want to talk about a "16 year plan" the first thing to do is get in the white house with an electable team. Hillary and Obama would have too many negatives, both in the same areas.
Obama may be able to combine with Edwards for a good product, both selling "change" to the status quo and taking advantage of Edwards appeal in the south.
For Hillary the southern democrats will vote for Bill (believe me I have heard it said) so she needs to consolidate another area, and I see going with Gov Richardson for the western\outsider\immigrant vote or Russ Feingold for the independent\anti-war vote.
Once that has come to pass, the next step is to build experience and expertise, and I would suggest Hillary appoint Obama as secretary of state to make him a better candidate in 2016.
We need to think beyond 4 years and on how to build better presidential candidates.
I had once thought that the best thing for the democratic party would be for Clinton to have swapped places with Gore when the impeachment brouhaha started, thus being able to concentrate on his defense, still provide advice to Al, but take the ethical high road of stepping aside until the legal issue was resolved. This would have given Gore an inside for the next election.
Enjoy.
Edited by RAZD, : independent
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