(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN
“Could an Obama-Clinton ticket be in the works for 2012? ... The White House is pouring some cold water on that red hot speculation. It says the possibility is absolutely not being discussed.” (KSWB)
“Not being discussed.” That’s what the White House says -- but that’s not what you’d hear flipping through newspapers and cable news channels.
The rumor mill started spinning soon after veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward appeared on CNN Tuesday evening.
“It’s on the table, and some of Hillary Clinton’s advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012. President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees, that she did so well with during the 2008 primaries, and so they switch jobs and not out of the question.”
So what would that mean for current veep Joe Biden? Woodward suggested an old-fashioned switcharoo, with Biden becoming Secretary of State and a VP Clinton in 2012.
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Vanity Fair’s Douglas Brinkley says the possibility makes good political sense.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, Vanity Fair: “Because it’s so logical. I don’t think you can run again with Joe Biden and have Obama-Biden, you won’t capture the energy of the campaign trail with that as a team. With Hillary Clinton. The problem Bush 41 had is he kept Quayle. The problem that you had with the last W., keeping Cheney.”
But in an NPR blog, Frank James says history proves -- rumors do not a vice president make.
“During the last administration, there were rumors about President George Bush replacing Vice President Dick Cheney. One rumor even had Rudy Giuliani replacing Cheney. We all know how that worked out.”
ABC’s Jake Tapper agrees, even going so far as to suggest Woodward made the whole thing up.
TAPPER: “Not only does it appear to be on the table, nobody knows what table Bob Woodward is talking about. Possibly, he is trying to create buzz for his book. But I have to say the book itself makes the opposite case about the relationship between Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama. And there's nobody in the building behind me I can find that has heard anything about this.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says there’s no truth to the rumors -- so does Hillary Clinton herself. We leave you with her response. Video from Politico:
CLINTON: “I think the vice president is doing a wonderful job. He's a great friend of mine. We work together closely. ... I have absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything other than just dismissing these stories and moving on because there's no -- we have no time.”
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