Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s advisers and allies have begun extensive discussions about who should be her running mate, seeking to compile a list of 15 to 20 potential picks for her team to start vetting by late spring, according to The New York Times.
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“The development immediately injects liberal darling Senator Elizabeth Warren’s name into the growing speculation about whom Clinton will choose as her running mate”, the paper writes in one of the most self-fulfilling sentences you’ll read today.
Skeptics are bound to raise the question of whether the country is prepared for an all-female ticket, but Clinton could always point out that few seemed to object to two centuries of all-male tickets.
Other prominent Democrats listed are former Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Sen.
The Globe floated Sen. Patty Murray and New Hampshire Sen.
While Warren hasn’t made a Democratic endorsement, she has been vocal in her opposition to the Republican candidates.
If Clinton is looking to shore up the left wing of the party, Cantwell could be a good pick to appeal to those Democrats who worry that a Clinton presidency wouldn’t focus enough on issues like the environment or clean energy. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who had been rumored to be considering a presidential bid herself.
“I guess anything is a possibility”, she said.
More importantly, it’s not clear that Clinton needs Warren to unite the party. Tim Kaine has also been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate. Ditto George W. Bush and Dick Cheney although that relationship frayed and eventually tore over deep disagreements over policy and approach. Within hours the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Jezebel, Mic, and countless other outlets had joined in on the fun with their own stories wondering aloud about a Clinton-Warren ticket. Clinton views Warren as someone able to embrace a Manichean view of Wall Street (and the world) because she has the luxury of not needing to ever really deal with people who feel differently.
That, typically, is not the foundation on which vice presidential nominees are built. A high-ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, she’s been a reliable opponent to the Keystone Pipeline and a vocal advocate for addressing global climate change. How would that come about?
An all-female presidential ticket would be a historic first in a presidential election full of surprises as Clinton competes to be the first female president of the United States.
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And as with any senator who Clinton might consider, there’s the balance of the chamber to consider. In a March Post-ABC national poll, 77 percent of liberal Democrats said they would be satisfied with Clinton becoming the party’s nominee, 82 percent said they would be satisfied with Sanders. A Clinton/McCaskill ticket could also help flip the swing state, which voted for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. And that nearly certainly goes double if their choice in a general election is between Clinton and Donald Trump or Clinton and Ted Cruz. Short of the “panic button” scenario I lay out above, I don’t see Clinton even seriously considering Warren to be her second-in-command.
