Value Judgment: Clark Hasn't Ruled Out VP

Value Judgment is a daily weblog written by two independent voters on the eastern seaboard of the United States. VJ will focus on the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, including strategy, tactics, and substance. The authors supported Howard Dean in the Democratic primary. Accordingly, his activities will be a prominent topic on this site.

Mail us:
V at valuejudgment.org or
J at valuejudgment.org

Link to VJ:

January 3, 2004

Clark Hasn't Ruled Out VP

For all the recent bluster from Clark that's been floating around the blogosphere about how he won't be Dean's VP, on New Year's Eve he apparently told a photographer that he hasn't ruled it out. His campaign staff are squawking like outraged parakeets that he wants no part of it, but the candidate himself is behaving more maturely.

on a New Year's Eve cruise around Portsmouth Harbor, Clark was overheard telling Garrett Scholes, a commercial photographer from Kittery, Maine, not only that Dean had indeed asked him to be vice president but also that he hadn't "ruled it out."

However, bad reporter, no biscuit -- observe the following paragraph:

Dean Campaign Manager Joe Trippi told reporters that his camp had not offered Clark the prospect of the vice presidential slot. But Clark's campaign said that was indeed a topic.

Those sentences are not contradictory, so why the "but"? "Offered" is different from "discussed," Maeve Reston.

Posted by J at January 3, 2004 08:09 AM

Comments

And then on MTP this morning... Russert badgered Clark into a "Shermanesque" statement that he would not run as a VP. A mangled version of "if nominated, will not accept".

But as noted by a commentator later... Clinton could probably talk anyone into the VP slot as a matter of "duty".

Posted by: Todd at January 4, 2004 11:54 AM

Yeah - He can't say publicly that he'd take VP -- if he did, his campaign would be over.

*shrug*

Now, he could come up with smoother answers than he has -- I think he's being 'handled' a bit too much, personally, but I'm not worried about Clark turning on the nominee if he doesn't get it the way I worry about the appeasers Kerry, Gephardt, and Lieberman.

Posted by: J at January 4, 2004 12:02 PM