The Clinton Double Standard

I know many are going to see this posting as sour grapes, and all I can say is get over it and read on.

Last night history was made in our country.  For the first time (sadly…why did it take this long?) an African-American became the presumptive nominee for a major political party.  Even I have to admit I had goose bumps watching Barack Obama's speech last night.  He hit all the right tones, took a few well placed swipes at john McCain and praised his Democratic opponents in what was a long and well fought Primary season including one Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton…remember her?  Satin herself according to some.  She too fought a long and hard battle for the nomination and came closer than any woman (again, sadly…why did it take this long?) to winning it despite some well place self inflected wounds.  She too was gracious in her speech after winning one of the final two primaries. And this is where the problem begins.

It appears that last night, Hillary, according to the pundits and headlines, " Clinton refuses to bow out of presidential race," should have given a concession speech and ended her campaign.  It doesn't seem to matter that this is rarely done by any candidate who runs for President including Rudy, John, Mitt, and Fred.  Each of these individuals held press conferences a day or two after being beaten in primaries to announce that they would be suspending their campaigns.  And none of them endorsed anyone at that time.  That too was a separate announcement.  To be fair, there are the folks like Joe Biden and Chris Dodd who maybe got 6 votes combined who put out press releases the night of losing a primary….badly.  So maybe Hillary, who earned nearly 18 million votes, should send out a press release announcing the end of campaign.  Maybe that would please the pundits and media in general.

Then there is the issue of whether Hillary wants a spot on the ticket as the VP nominee.

As you may have heard, yesterday during a conference call with her fellow NY lawmakers, Hillary was asked if she would be interested in being on the ticket if asked.  Her response went along the lines of she'll do whatever is necessary to secure a victory for Democrats in November.  The call was supposed to be confidential, but, really…do I really need to go there?

For many reasons, including securing victory in November for the Democrats, I think she should be on the ticket.  It's clear by the number of votes she won during the primaries and the large number of target groups she would bring to the ticket that she would be a valuable asset to the ticket.

However, the pundits can't help themselves by talking about how she would serve to only drag down the ticket.  They point to the fact that the VP position is nothing more than a sub serving post.  Never mind the fact that Bill Clinton and Al Gore changed that and President Cheney and Vice President Bush followed suit.  It has become a unique political partnership…one that is built out of necessity for many reasons, but mostly due to the old standard — the second person on the ticket is responsible for securing a block of electorial votes in the general election.

That's not the worst of it.  The pundits are convinced that Bill would bring the ticket down.  They believe if she were the nominee, the focused would be on Bill — where did the money for his Presidential library come from, how much does he make for political speeches, etc…the list is long and stupid.  Correct me if I'm wrong, just a few weeks ago Cindy McCain stated under no circumstances that she would not be releasing her tax returns because she's not running for office.  The media didn't seem to care all that much, so why should it be different for Bill?  He's not running for office.  Who cares?  What does that have to do with bringing the troops home or making sure the millions of Americans without healthcare get some?  Yes, I get it…he's a former President, but so what.  Again, he's not running for office so end of story.

In the end I can't help but wonder…if Hillary isn't on the ticket and she fades back into her work being the junior senator for NY, who will the media have to kick around?  They sure do like picking on her.  I'm not saying she doesn't deserve to be kicked every now and then, but the media's Clinton Double Standard has become nothing more than a childish game.