{"id":179,"date":"2008-08-21T16:54:02","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T16:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html"},"modified":"2008-08-21T16:54:02","modified_gmt":"2008-08-21T16:54:02","slug":"why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Will Be Obama&#8217;s Running Mate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Way back on August 13, when Joseph Biden was pretty low down on the VP  list <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/my-veep-predictions.html\">I predicted he would get the nod <\/a>&#8211; largely because his foreign policy expertise (much commented upon) was supplemented by some lesser-known faith-factor attributes (he&#8217;s an abortion centrist).<br \/>\nNow that Biden has become <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2008\/08\/20\/biden-is-democratic-favor_n_120244.html\">the frontrunner, <\/a>my impulse for the underdog prompts me to abandon my previous prediction and make a new one: it&#8217;ll be Hillary.<br \/>\nAs I <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/06\/obama-should-be-grateful-for-h.html\">wrote back in June<\/a>, despite many compelling arguments for choosing Hillary there was one overwhelming argument against: it would make Obama look weak. In the days following her loss, Hillary and her people were pushing so hard that Obama couldn&#8217;t have chosen her even if he&#8217;d wanted to, as he would have seemed a pushover.<br \/>\nTwo and a half months have passed. Obama campaign has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mydd.com\/story\/2008\/7\/28\/2188\/08651\">let drop little hints<\/a> that she&#8217;s not being as seriously considered as the others.  Most of the lists don&#8217;t even mention her any more.  She seems to have moved on as have <a href=\"http:\/\/fromtheleft.wordpress.com\/2008\/07\/31\/hillary-for-vp-group-shuts-its-doors\/\">most of her people.<\/a><br \/>\nSo, now if Obama were to choose her, he would look strong not weak.  Because he doesn&#8217;t have to choose her, he can choose her.  In fact, come to think of it, the lack of Hillary being included in most of the lists is sort of suspicious.  If Obama were really serious about not picking Hillary, wouldn&#8217;t he be sure to leak that she&#8217;s being very seriously considered, in order to assuage her supporters?  Her absence from the lists is the best sign that she&#8217;s a strong contender!<br \/>\n(Unless, of course, she&#8217;s missing from the list because she&#8217;s not a serious contender.)<br \/>\nNote: If she&#8217;s not the candidate, this post will mysteriously disappear<br \/>\nUPDATE:  Conclusive evidence she definitely was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0808\/12713.html\">not seriously considered for the job.<\/a> Of course by my canny logic above, this is proof positive that she&#8217;s the one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Way back on August 13, when Joseph Biden was pretty low down on the VP list I predicted he would get the nod &#8211; largely because his foreign policy expertise (much commented upon) was supplemented by some lesser-known faith-factor attributes (he&#8217;s an abortion centrist). Now that Biden has become the frontrunner, my impulse for the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hillary Will Be Obama&#039;s Running Mate - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hillary Will Be Obama&#039;s Running Mate - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Way back on August 13, when Joseph Biden was pretty low down on the VP list I predicted he would get the nod &#8211; largely because his foreign policy expertise (much commented upon) was supplemented by some lesser-known faith-factor attributes (he&#8217;s an abortion centrist). Now that Biden has become the frontrunner, my impulse for the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-21T16:54:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hillary Will Be Obama's Running Mate - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hillary Will Be Obama's Running Mate - Steven Waldman","og_description":"Way back on August 13, when Joseph Biden was pretty low down on the VP list I predicted he would get the nod &#8211; largely because his foreign policy expertise (much commented upon) was supplemented by some lesser-known faith-factor attributes (he&#8217;s an abortion centrist). Now that Biden has become the frontrunner, my impulse for the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html","og_site_name":"Steven Waldman","article_published_time":"2008-08-21T16:54:02+00:00","author":"swaldman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html","name":"Hillary Will Be Obama's Running Mate - Steven Waldman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-08-21T16:54:02+00:00","dateModified":"2008-08-21T16:54:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/08\/why-hillary-will-be-obamas-run.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hillary Will Be Obama&#8217;s Running Mate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/","name":"Steven Waldman","description":"Author of 'Founding Faith'","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded","name":"swaldman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","caption":"swaldman"},"description":"Steven Waldman is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Beliefnet. He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Review, The Atlantic, Slate, and many others.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/author\/swaldman"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}