The Dish

A reader writes:

I have to share your Dissent of the Day’s sentiment, though for different reasons.  I’d given some thought to the possibility you propose, but then I began imagining the liberties our current Vice President has taken with regard to the powers of his office–terrible, and disturbing, precedents. I know you’d agree.  I’m not and have never been among those spouting the she-had-Vince-Foster-murdered meme, but we’ve all been witnesses to the Clintons’ hunger for power, their sense of entitlement–remember the "inevitability" meme?  Why feed that by granting her the vice-presidency?  To put her a step away from the Presidency, though it would certainly be a magnanimous gesture on Obama’s part, would be, I fear, far too much temptation.  She–both directly and through those closest to her–has shown herself to be far less magnanimous, especially toward those whom she feels "owe" her and her husband.

She’s willing to be destructive in the quest for power;

I’d as soon not contemplate what she’d do if she had any actual power–especially power that, like Cheney’s, could/would be exercised mostly out of sight.  Obama, I’m certain, is not nearly as malleable as Bush is, but it’s not Clinton’s influence over him that I’d be worried about.

Finally, why let the foot of the Clintons’ personal psychodrama anywhere near the door of the White House again?  You have warned against this throughout the campaign; why, now that she is all-but-officially defeated, should you now be ignoring your own warnings?

So, no sir.  If it is indeed true that the Clintons represent the last gasp of Rovian politics, then let them gasp.  And don’t resuscitate them.

Another reader’s e-mail captures the tone of those more aggressively opposed to the idea:

CLINTON AS VP?????  What drugs are you doing??? I’ll vote for McCain, 2 Huckabees, and 10 Romneys before I EVER cast a vote for Obama/Clinton. Period.

If he does say so himself:

"Folks, it’s always a mistake to bet against America. It was tough in 1968, and we came back. It was tough in 1992 and we wound up with the eight best years we’ve had in modern history."

One thing I omitted in my airing of the logic behind an Obama-Clinton unity ticket: if a Clinton runs, it’s always about the Clintons. The distraction from the Obama message could be dreadful.

Larison urges Jindal to not join McCain on the ticket. Ross also questions the logic.

Florence, Italy, 7.15 am.

Dale Carpenter and Ilya Somin have been debating Jonathan Rauch’s recent article on McCain’s conservatism. Here is Dale:

I am not sure whether McCain is really Burkean. The simple fact that he has taken particular policy positions doesn’t answer the question. There is no Burkean tax plan.

The question of temperament, which Rauch does not discuss in his excellent Atlantic essay, is more important than any single policy position. What matters most to the question of whether McCain is Burkean, I think, is how he tends to approach public policy questions. Is it with caution and humility, with a preference for evolution rather than revolution? Or is it with a reformer’s zeal, one who has an unshakeable goal in mind and will let nothing stand in the way?

Burke’s actual temperament, one should recall, was not all calm and caution. He was an Irishman.

"Why don’t we hold these Wall St money grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?" – Senator Hillary Clinton.

A science blogger in North Carolina attends a Clinton rally:

[The gas tax holiday] idea is, as an educated friend of mine who very much wants to support Clinton told me as we waited for Clinton to arrive, an insult to her intelligence. But then, there was Clinton, insulting the intelligence of her audience every chance she got. The only common theme to emerge from the 30-minute ramble was an attack on our enemies. China is the enemy for selling us lead-contaminated toys and poison pet food. The Saudis are the enemy for exploiting our addition to oil. The rest of OPEC, too. And worst of all are those evil, parasitic "middlemen" who pop up in every corner of the economy, ready to take a cut and give back nothing.

Only ordinary Americans, and, because this Clinton campaign stop was in a rural corner of the state, only small-town Americans, can be trusted to do what’s right. It’s sad, really. Not only is everyone else the enemy, but intelligence itself is suspect. What we need, she seemed to be saying between the lines, is someone at the top who’s just a simple yokel. More of the last eight years, in other words.

"Jesus was not some Nazarene carpenter who was picked at random. He was selected and tortured in a manner that was designed to destroy the community carrying His message…Torture is generally used to attack and suppress civil society. This is why it is aimed at the monks in Burma, the political leaders of Zimbabwe, the playwrights of Czechoslovakia, the journalists of Russia, the students of Chile, or the union leaders of Uruguay. In this use, torture is a strategy to maintain the corrupt against the civic minded, the empowered over the disenfranchised, and the best fed in lands where most are poor and hungry. Torture is government by intimidation, horror, fear and division. It is antithetical to those who would create societies to flourish by loving kindness, justice, and inclusion," – Steven Miles.

On a weekend when new polling shows Obama leading McCain 50 – 41, Kristol declares his vulnerability and inexperience, and recommends a 36 year-old to counter him. One of the Kagans was unavailable? There must be some hanging around.

In the past, we’ve been sheltered from the full force of the human horror of Hiroshima. No longer:

The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Three of these photographs are reproduced in Atomic Tragedy with the permission of the Capp family. Now that the restriction is no longer in force, the entire set is available.