jim webb would be good. i know he said no, but if his party really needed him he'd have to agree

I know it's a perception of weakness, but she really helps out in the one area where Obama is seemingly incapable--hitting back.

It couldn't have been put any better.

On the fighter business:

I couldn't agree more with the need for a fighter. Not to fight the primaries over again, but I didn't see Senator Clinton as more of a fighter than Senator Obama.  Neither one seems inclined toward a large battle.

Neither Bush is a fighter, but they both had plenty of people who were willing to do their fighting for them.  How come no Democrat ever has the kind of help that Republicans get?

Since there is apparently no living Democrat who is willing to go to the mattresses for the party's nominee, Obama is left on his own.  He's got to get it done, and in the next ten days, or this is just going to get worse as the summer goes on.

On the vice-president candidate:

The only reason to turn down a VP spot is because you have something in you or in your history that would make you an untenable candidate.  If some one takes themselves out of the running, we have to respect that.

Obama better not be depending on his VP choice to make up for any perceived deficiencies in him as a president.  He's the top of the ticket and no running mate is going to sell him.

I just better be a universally acknowledged good choice, rather than a safe choice.

this morning on Meet the Press.  I'm not sure if the Obama-Clark movement is really gaining any steam; perhaps we can start a page on Obama's website.

The "Obama will only pick HRC if he needed her" narrative was started by Chuck Todd, presumably with no evidence to support his assertion.  However, I agree that it's potentially a devastating narrative.  Hopefully, the gallup and rasmussen tracking polls will show Obama up by at least five at the time of his picking HRC, if that ever happens, to quash this narrative.

on the defensive...why don't Democrats understand this philosophy...the proverbial nice but weak guy is always on the defensive, busy defending his positions, shifting to morph into things that he is not really comfortable...

I'm sorry but you're absolutely on the mark on your analysis. We need some tough fightback from the Obama campaign...if the campaign fails to respond then organizations like MoveOn.org needs to be prodded to fill in the gap...

Obama needs her.  Or is it the HER?   Every VP is chosen, supposedly, based on NEED.  Often a Northeaster "elite" is advised to pick a southerner because he NEEDS him to get some votes from a region where the so called elites don't do well.  JFK picked a person he supposedly did not like when he chose LBJ and in the end it was a good choice.

I really don't get why Obama and his supporters are so insecure about having Hillary on the ticket.   She garnished nearly half the votes therefore she would help the ticket.  With the exception of a miniscule few, most Hillary supporters would be guaranteed for the ticket; he would have someone who can fight the fight he can't handle.  

I think it's the fragile ego problem.   Seriously....the strength of the women she brings to the table could only help the party.

isn't going to suffice to bring the Democratic Party over the finish line and into the White House.

Here's the deal... if Obama doesn't pick the VP before the olympics, then it will be Hillary announced a the convention as a huge surprise!

Yeah, we do need a fighter. Biden or Clinton would fit. We need someone who is the opposite of John Kerry. I was sickened by his performance on the MTP. WIMP!!!

Stand Up and Fight or Lose in November. This should be the message of the Democratic Party to each of its candidates nationally.

Clark or Kaine. Kaine is definitely a fighter and from the same ethnic group as McCain.

Yes, I catch all sorts of crap from both the left and the right--from both Obama supporters and Clinton supporters--whenever I repeat how much I respect David Gergen.

But, IMHO, there's simply nobody else in the U.S. MSM with more political experience, more class, and more bipartisan background than this guy.

I disagree with him more often than I'd like to admit; but I have tons of respect for him.

That makes this a great post, Todd! Well put.

Kudos.

Couldn't agree more about the fighter...

And for what it's worth, I think Edwards would be a good fighter too, which is what attracted a lot of people here and elsewhere to him in the first place (before he dropped out).  Out of the earliest candidates, he seemed to be the most vocal about trying to stir some shit up... Let him do it as a VP candidate.

Todd, if Hillary Clinton is such a prize fighter, why did she get knocked the f*@k out in the primaries?

You MyDD'ers are still smoking the same crack you were a few months ago. Obama is exactly as much of a "fighter" as he needs to be. He defeated the Clinton machine and will cakewalk over John McCain's wizened body.

I think he needs to reopen that question and re-examine that because he needs a fighter by his side to take this on. There are some things that he just can't say very well that she could say or someone who is a fighter could say. I think this week just underscored very much he needs a strong running mate, he doesn't need a colorless running mate.

Good God.  I am so freakin' sick of the duplicitous elite Beltway media.  As everyone here knows, Wesley Clark landed some pretty tough punches against McCain a few weeks ago and the MSM collapsed on their damn fainting couches en masse.  Now they want a fighter?  Until when?  Until McCain's campaign pretends to be offended by something and then the entire media universe rallies passionately to his defense and scolds the mean mean Democrats.

Sheesh.  I'm so tired of this...

Obama will lose this election if he fails to attack McCain. All this "he's cynical" or "his TV ads are mean" will not work and hasn't been working. He needs to step up the attacks or he's going to lose. Mark my words. The GOP does this every time to the Democrats and we never learn. For once, I would like to see us be on the defensive. Negative ads work.

I'm telling you guys, David Gergen says he wants a fighter but he will eagerly throw the Dem vp under the bus the first time McCain pretends to take offense at something.  Obama's veep could say the sky is blue and McCain would be offended.  Seriously.  Then the MSM would gleefully eviscerate Obama.

This. Is. A. Fool's. Game.

Don't listen to David Gergen.

My short list:

Edwards
Clark

Either is fine. Neither has Clinton's baggage. If not this, then Clinton because yes she's a fighter, but hurts him in other ways that aren't superficial like the ones used againg Edwards or Clark.

Joe Biden is the best man for this. He is ruthless and comes up with great one-liners.  He also has great foreign policy experience.

The problem for Biden is that he talks too much. But that might not be such a bad thing here.

Bayh is not as blah as some people make out. He's a true Midwestern politician with strong appeal in small-town Indiana. That will help in Ohio.

David Rodham Gergen lol ( just couldn't resist ) doesn't know what the hell he is talking about .

I wonder why they have him on TV.

He is not someone I would rely on for advice

Barack Obama/Chuck Liddell '08!

Seriously though, I think Clark would be the perfect VP choice.  A fighter with credentials that put him in a unique position to question McCain's foreign policy without getting labeled as a weak on national security.  Win/win.

I've been all over the place on my favorite for Veep. For a while I liked Daschle or Biden, because I feel comfortable that either would bring experience and gravitas to the job, and that would be beneficial to Obama as president.

Next, I liked the idea of Tim Kaine because the two of them are "of a piece" so to speak. They'd be Clinton/Gore but truly comfortable with one another, like old friends. Perhaps Tim Kaine would make an able Chief of Staff in a few years: the Leo to Obama's President Bartlet.

With poll numbers dropping because McCain is defining Obama and Obama isn't defining McCain, I agree that he needs someone who isn't afraid to talk shit. I think Clark would be perfect, he would really get under McCain's skin and wouldn't be cowed by whiners in McCain's media base.

was EVERY day talking about how McCain's was Bush's third term.  I remember in one of his economic speeches he said that 15 times or something and the media even noted that.

Something happened in July.  Obama was so into trying to define himself in July with his patriotism, faith-based iniatives, American values tour and later the overseas tour that he forgot that he had an opponent.

Hopefully last week woke up the Obama campaign enough that the realized that the had to hit HARD every single day.

I have called the campaign a lot this past week to tell them to do that.  The Obama campaign have said that they have received THOUSANDS of calls asking them to do just that.

Let's see if they start being aggressive this week.

Hillary will be campaigning with Obama this week and when Obama is on vacation next week, Hillary will be campaigning on behalf of Obama in swing states.

Let's see what she will be doing.

You gotta admit, after all the "Hillary won't be VP" noise, if he suddenly picks her, it will send shockwaves through the race, make him look like the gracious winner, get the WHOLE party energized, and set up a landslide in November.

So...yeah. He might.

it gets filled with GOP talking points.

Obama is fighting like hell just fine, thank you for the concern.

But a good attack dog for VP will allow him to stay on the high road to success.

You have two themes in your post, (A) Obama isn't being aggressive enough and (B) He needs a fighter for VP (someone like Hillary).

I think that Obama's defensive attitude comes from the fact that he knows that the vast majority of the electorate won't be paying attention until after Labor Day.  Just Dodge the Blows and let McCain wear out the attack dogs on the themes that even we knew were coming.

By Labor Day McCain will be the proverbial boy who called wolf and no one will listen.  

I agree, the VP Choice must be a fighter. But also remember 'It's the Economy Stupid!' By November, this economy won't be able to repair itself given the Bushies reluctance to be proactive.  Personally, I like Dodd given his command of economic issues.  He can out maneuver and roll over the Republican talking points on the economy like Patton's Tanks.

One of the reason I was attracted to the Obama candidacy was the possibility of a new kind of politics, if he were to trash McSame or use some of the republican tactics he wouldn't be an agent of change IMHO.

That guy is a fighter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHQARYLuM lM

You don't understand.  Obama will never pick Hillary (the obvious choice) because he's too arrogant to believe that he needs her-it would be caving in to the obvious.  I love it when the Obama lovers on TV bloviate about "Obama's message of change" blah, blah, blah, and then in practically the next breath tout Bayh, Dodd, and Biden as good running mates.  Now the Botox Queen (and coy blue ribbon Hillary hater Pelosi wants Chet Edwards.  I may go out of my mind.

The concern I had was that Obama did not have it in him to make the (substantial) case against the Republicans.  That concern remains.

Kaine or Bayh would be almost singularly lame choices when the bench of strong partisan fighters is so full: Clark, Biden, Clinton, etc...

Every time Obama dips in the polls, here comes Jerome to wisely sage to us about how weak of a candidate Obama is . . . strangely we don't see many posts from the man when Obama is up or, he, for some  reason  doesnt talk much about how Obama is killing McCain amongst the working class or out preforming Kerry by big margins in all demographics.  

Hey, lets get this through our heads, though McCain absolutely represents a Bush third term (or worse), he still has the residue of a strong brand.  Thats why the Republicans settled on him in the first place.  If Bush was at 45% McCain would have never gotten the nomination.  So stop your stupid what-ifs, they don't mean a thing.

But, ahhh, yes sour grapes Jerome Armstrong, you know he was right all along dont you?

In the primaries, Obama demonstrated really good timing.  In contest after contest, he didn't peak too early, and he invested the resources he needed to win without waste.  I'm pretty sure he's not further ahead at this point because the electorate isn't paying much attention yet and there's no real advantage in being further ahead now.  The future course of the campaign certainly isn't completely or even mostly under his campaign's control, but the fact that he's not fighting tooth and nail right now doesn't worry me a bit.

Barrack makes soaring speeches. He can spellbind a crowd like JFK. He can sound like music. His problem is that his speeches are the equivalent of the scat singing of such greats as Cab Calloway and Ellla Fitzgerald. Sounded, and still sound, bloody marvelous. The only problem is that the right notes will only go so far. Obama needs lyrics that put McCain in his place. He hasn't said a thing about why a McCain presidency would be so bad for this country, just that he's like George Bush II. That's not enough. The voters just might settle for that if Barrack scat sings his way into an image of weakness and passivity. If he won't confront McCain, why would anyone think he would confront the resurgent Al Quaeda or anyone else that needs to be put in their place? Why would anyone think he would confront the GOP from the White House to undo that damage they've done to the country. Why would they trust a celebrity singer. This bogus attack has worked better than it should because that is exactly how he is behaving. This is especially true because of the craven cowardice being shown by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.