No way, no how: No HRC for VP

Felicia R. Harvey, Special to BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com

- No. Nein. Non. Mai. Nope. Uh-uh. Nah.

Seven different ways to say no and a quick language translation or use of profanity will yield you a lot more. All of which should be the answer to the question of whether or not Sen. Hillary Clinton should be on the Democratic ticket.

A campaign centered around change cannot bring into the fold a throwback to the politics of old. Sure some would be happy with a so-called “Dream Team,” but I would also think just as many voters who really took the message of change and a new brand of politics to heart would be disillusioned.

As I sat and watched the Clinton infomercial (because her ‘go to my website at hillaryclinton.com and share your thoughts’ sounded a lot like Ms. Cleo’s ‘call me now’), I listened to her squander an opportunity to take the high road and not elbow her way into the spotlight of a historical night. I heard her plea for the 18 million people who voted for her to “be respected, to be heard and to no longer be invisible.” Unfortunately we hear and see them, we saw just how tacky and classless they could be at the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting. We hear their chants of “Denver, Denver, Denver” and “McCain 2008.”

We saw her backers try to hijack rules that they supported at the outset. Where were all the cries of disenfranchisement when the rules were passed? And not having a crystal ball and being able to see the train wreck that has occurred is no excuse.

The Clinton campaign has essentially written the Republican’s general election campaign strategy and I am sure that McCain and company are no doubt appreciative. If by some travesty, we end up with an Obama-Clinton ticket, she’ll have written their campaign commercials as well.

Announcer: If Hillary Clinton has no faith in Barack Obama answering the phone at 3 a.m., why should you…

If Clinton held out any hope of being on the ticket, she squandered it last night by not exiting stage left gracefully. Instead she pumped herself up a la Stuart Smalley - “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me” and moonwalked off the stage like everyone on planet Earth missed CNN/Fox/AP call the State of Denial for Clinton and award its 219 delegates to her.

Enough is enough. If the Democrats truly want to take back the White House, no HRC for VP.