It's Unity!

Looking a lot like a 500 pound gorilla "Unity" arrived yesterday in a small New Hampshire town. The residents were stunned and slightly overwhelmed at the arrival and relieved as it waddled out of town.

Unity is a lush green blip on a hilly highway, easy to miss.

The perfect political photo op — and this was a pretty darn good one —isn't aimed at the rational faculties of an informed electorate. It seeks whatever section of the brain it is that triggers a tummy rumble at the sight of a moist doughnut. It's about instinct, not reason.

"I know firsthand how good she is, how tough she is, how passionate she is, how committed she is to the causes that brought all of us here today."

“The one consistency Barack Obama has going today is that he’s once again surrounded himself with Democrats.”

"I know what we start here in this field in Unity will end on the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president."

"I'm feeling the love."

Thursday in DC

So the buzz I expected to begin earlier on the joint appearances of Obama and Clinton has now begun. Chris Cillizza makes the case for selection of HRC as BO's VP candidate.

Democratic voters believed she was ready to be president.

He makes all the arguments; she got half the vote, she'll cement PA, OH, MI and FL (this is the biggie for me - without HRC the numbers I've seen out of FL indicate it may go McCain) and she has the tenacity necessary in a VP candidate.

On Friday Mr. Cillizza says he will review the negatives of a Clinton VP selection. In the meantime I get to enjoy watching all the ponybabies whose heads will explode at this:

Given the history -- real or imagined -- between the two candidates, many voters would see the choice of Clinton as a sign of Obama's "bigness," i.e. his commitment to reaching outside of his comfort zone to pick the best candidate. The symbolism of such a pick would cement the "Obama as un-politician" -- a position that meant victory in the primary season.

Heh.

Thursday they make a joint appearance in Washington to address Clinton's bundlers. I wonder what they'll want from Obama. Oh to be a fly on the wall.

Friday in Unity

Seems that on Friday Senators Obama and Clinton will present their first joint campaign appearance in Unity, NH. Oh, the cute. It's intent, no doubt, is to soothe Clinton supporters and to demonstrate her fealty to the nominee. The news has been out for almost a day now and no one has speculated on how this will effect her chances to be named to the ticket. I am surprised about that. Could this be the first of many joint appearances prior to the convention? I am intrigued.

Oh, and James Dobson is a loon. Listen to him, read his diatribes at your own risk.

Kerfuffle

Quite a little dust up yesterday over the meaning of Patti Solis Doyle joining the Obama campaign as chief of staff for his running mate. What, you say, Obama hasn’t annointed a Vice Presidential candidate yet. That would be true, so what does this appointment mean. Some say, Jerome Armstrong among them, that this bodes well for the selection of Senator Clinton to the ticket, while some, such as this supporter think differently.

"It's a slap in the face," Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Clinton backer, said in an interview. "Why would they put somebody that was so clearly ineffective in such a position? It's a message. We get it." She said it was a "calculated decision" by the Obama team to "send a message that she [Clinton] is not being considered for the ticket."

Why would the Obama campaign make such a move? Following Solis Doyle’s retirement from Clinton’s campaign (the time with family thing, heh) and her estrangement from Clinton make it hard for me to believe this signals a Clinton VP offer.
Kevin Drum sums it up for me,

If this is true, it's beyond bizarre. Obama has every incentive in the world to make nice with Hillary, and nothing in his past behavior suggests that he's given to gratuitous insults like this. Either the conventional wisdom is wrong, or else there's a much deeper game going on than anyone thinks.

I love drama.