The Boston Herald is reporting today that, "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who casts an imposing shadow over the 2004 Democratic pack, yesterday played it coy when asked whether she would accept a vice presidential spot on a ticket with Howard Dean."
It is almost embarassing for me to say this but, quite honestly, I hadn't even thought of the possibility of Hillary being selected as the nominee's Vice President. It would definitely be a good PR move for the Democratic candidate to pick Hillary.
However, it is hard for me to think of Hillary running as a VP behind Dean. She seems much more suited to run behind Clark. If it is true that the Clintons urged Clark to run, then perhaps it is not so far-fetched to believe that Hillary might be picked as his VP.
Naturally, all of these theories are pure speculation, and I have been weary about any conspiracies that elude to Hillary trying to make a run for the presidency(Read my blog on the subject here). That being said, this new theory sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Still, though, it only works if Clark wins, or does it?
Stay with me for a second here while I jump on the Gore/Clinton speculation bandwagon for a minute. It seems that a lot of people automatically assume that Dean will win the nomination, and then that he will pick a Southern running mate so that he can at least try to compete in the South. Well, I do think Dean will win the nomination, but maybe he won't go after a Southernor.
Maybe, there isn't a Gore/Clinton rift after all. What if Gore and Clinton started to see that Dean's nomination was inevitable, and decided that they had to try to thin out the race so that the nominee would be seen as a clear front-runner? Bill Clinton wouldn't want to endorse Dean for two reasons. One, he wouldn't want to turn his back on Clark, but the more viable reason would be that he wouldn't want to back a candidate that was about to pick his wife as a running-mate. The Republicans would have a field day with that.
Then there is Gore. What does he have to lose? Why not endorse Dean? As a loyal Democrat you want to see this race trimmed down, and bring the party together to rally around a clear front-runner. So, why not do it? He can turn his back on Lieberman because Lieberman has run an awful campaign. So, maybe he just decided that it was time to use his influence to show that the party was ready to nominate Dean. Then, maybe he whispered in Deans' ear before he the endorsement how great Hillary would be as a running-mate.
Then again, I am just specualting. One more totally unsubstantiated theory on top of the pile of a million other theories reagrding the Clintons, Gore, and the Democrat in 2004.