Vice President Hillary Clinton--Really

Today, with the polls, for the first time ever, showing Barack Obama below the 270 electoral votes needed to win, and Michael Moore, in a sappy open letter, suggesting he just take a nose dive by putting Caroline Kennedy on the ticket, I feel sorry for Bean Pole. So I got a suggestion.

As astounding as it seems, if a few thousand votes had gone differently in the five counties in the Appalachian corner of Ohio, we would now be facing the prospect of a second John Kerry term, the dumping of an adulterous vice president, and all kinds of good things.

But, everything considered, Obama should be able to do as well as Kerry---even a little better. He might get New Hampshire's three votes. But, I wouldn't want to put all my eggs in the Virgina basket, which, as a testament to the disastrous leadership of George Bush, is a toss up right now.

Barry is never going to persuade the Hoosiers he is not a Muslim, so he shouldn't waste his time hooking up with the uninspiring Evan Bayh. Sprucing up the Obama foreign policy credentials with Joe Biden will not help with the redneck vote--and the guy is a disaster waiting to happen. It is questionable how much Tim Kaine would be able to do in iffy Virgina, and he has no draw anywhere else.

Once again it will all come down to Ohio. The bad news for the Obamiacs is that at this point in the race the polls showed Kerry winning—although with the wind sailing and all, in the end they dumped him. However, even at this point, McCain has Obama on the ropes in the Buckeye State.

As Hillary Clinton was trying to explain back in the primaries, as Ohio goes, so goes the election.

I hate truisms, except when they are true. It is a fact that no Republican has, since Abe Lincoln, won the presidency without taking Ohio. The only Democrats to move into the White House without the blessing of Ohio, are Roosevelt and Kennedy.

Bill Clinton won Ohio twice. He did it by running up the vote in Cleveland and its suburbs, and the rest of the heavily Democratic Northeast corner of the state, and then pulling enough votes in the rural Appalachian Southeast. See map breakdown of Ohio by county for presidential elections here. See county breakdown by votes in 1992 and 1996 here

Obama is constitutionally unable to appeal to gun slinging, god fearing, beer guzzling “bitter people” in Southeastern Ohio, or anywhere else. He needs the help of a good veep selection.

Hillary Clinton would be the best choice, even if Obama does not relish the idea of Bill Clinton running a government in exile from the Naval Observatory for the next four years. Mrs. Clinton's stupendously successful rebirth as a two-fisted cafeteria worker was not really all that surprising—her husband is the master of Red State Blue State Populism—and she could pull enough of the type of voters Barack needs.

Not only that—it would truly reengergize the race, in a way a bland white guy couldn't— really, if there are two groups I know, it is women and rednecks. And other than the problem of co-governing with the Clintons, there is very little downside.

I think Barack Obama, who is ( despite what his dewy- eyed groupies think) a very good Chicago politician, realizes this, and that is why Bill Clinton is scheduled to introduce the vice presidential nominee to the convention on Wednesday.

The other option is Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. He was a Hillary supporter, and is fairly popular. He might be able to get enough of the disgruntled Reagan Democrats to go Obama's way. But he is a bland white guy whose only real assistance would be in Ohio.

If Obama does not pick Clinton ( or at least Strickland)—it's President John McCain.