The Vice Presidency is the Political Kiss of Death

Anyone who believes Hillary Clinton is sympathetic to Progressive values and issues must
also believe in the tooth fairy and the second coming of Elvis.

Lately there has been speculation about yet to be nominee Clinton's potential to pick Elizabeth Warren as Vice President.  The two did have a publicized meeting. .

Nevertheless, my restless brain cannot help but speculate a bit. 

There is much evidence of Senator Warren's liberal credentials.  Elizabeth Warren is trying to regulate predatory pay day lenders.  That is not Clinton Democratic orthodoxy as evidenced by Debbie Wasserman Shultz opposition to the bill.  Warren has also been at the forefront of the fight to make the Senate do their duty and consider President Obama’s Supreme Court selection, Judge Merrick Garland.  She has made several scathing critiques of Donald Trump, the most effective Trump attacks I have seen.  She did it by citing facts rather than accusations and insults.  She spoke on camera in detail building and thundering her indictment of Trump.  She did not communicate via Twitter. 

She has collaborated with Bernie Sanders in the Senate tirelessly on behalf of working families.  She is known as a scourge of Wall Street and Big Banks.  She is an economics professor and seems absolutely unsympathetic to corrupt zombie banksters, hedge fund managers, and criminal derivative hawking big brokerages.  And that is just the tip of her iceberg.

I am interested in what EW and HRC might have in common.  Warren and Clinton met when Bill was still President.  Elizabeth Warren and Hillary ate hamburgers in a small room and Warren explained why a bankruptcy bill lobbied by the credit card industry would hurt people.  Warren was impressed with the speed and intelligence with which Clinton comprehended the complicated economic concepts.   Hillary was grateful and promised to communicate to Bill the reasons the bill would be bad for consumers.

In 2004 Senator Hillary Clinton voted in favor of the same bankruptcy bill she discussed five years prior over burgers in a tiny room in a big hotel.  I learned about this from Elizabeth Warren who was not impressed to say the least.

That story seems to epitomize the political relationship between Clinton and Warren.  They would seem to be in opposite universes when it comes to the financial world.  If anything, the big banks would pay Elizabeth Warren NOT to speak.  

Perhaps Trump trumps their political opposition.  They seem like natural rivals to each other, but working together maybe they could silence the paper tiger.  Is that what Clinton is thinking; a strong combined ticket to beat the beast?

Perhaps she should also be thinking about Warren stealing her non- existent thunder.

However we all know that the breaker of glass ceilings is smarter than that.  Suppose Hillary wanted to get Bernie people to support her without giving them any progressive concessions.  What if Hillary could neutralize a potential rival and political thorn in the person of Elizabeth Warren?
 

Hmm, how does she satisfy both requirements?

What would be in it for potential VP Warren?  That is the $19,384,415,288,361.14  question.

It could be a launching pad for a run for the big enchilada in four or eight years.  She has stated that she could assume the duties of Commander in Chief.  However, if she is so eager for the Oval Office, why didn’t she run this year?  Moreover, why did she not rally for the Sanders Political Revolution and withhold endorsement from Bernie?   It has always seemed to me that Warren was one of the few representatives to support the same care and concern for the people which Bernie exemplifies. 

There is a paradox in here somewhere and I have not been able to sort it out.  Would Elizabeth Warbucks sell out?  It would seem that way even though I don't want to believe it.

It is true that Warren endorsed Clinton but very much later than every other female Democratic member of Congress and Senate.  What could Clinton possibly offer Warren even to secure the endorsement?  The answer is most likely nothing at all.  If Warren is sincere in her policies then she will need to maintain her towering and highly effective influence in the Senate.  If Hillary somehow managed to actually get elected President she could chill the atmosphere around Elizabeth Warren more quickly than Arnold Schwarzenegger (Mr. Freeze for the uninitiated) in Batman and Robin. 


However, the lure of power in a Presidential administration may have overridden Warbuck's  judgement and reputed good intentions.

I’d love to chalk the whole thing up to the usual CNN/ MSNBC bull shingles but this year is so crazy that it seems anything is possible.  With the exception of Bernie Sanders, all the major players (and most of the minor ones also) have been gross and vile.  Dishonesty is the new normal.  We don’t believe them even before they open their deceitful mouths. It has been all about “gotcha” and “who, me?” and all other manner of distraction and excuse.  We are all disgusted.  If “disgusted” were on the ballot, it would win be a landslide!  So is anything really up?  Is Elizabeth Warren an honest crusading Senator and champion of the people or is she a player on the Presidential stage.

OK, already, I’ll ask the question:  did Elizabeth Warren sell out?  She is  too smart and experienced to believe any promises that would grant her any real authority in a Clinton administration.  She has been lied to before by Hillary.  Is Warren's distance from the Sanders campaign sufficient reason to question her integrity?  It would seem to have been a bell weather.

The whole thing could be illusion like everything else about Hillary Clinton.

My gut tells me that if Clinton offers the VP to Warren and she accepts it I will not receive that information with tidings of comfort and joy.