Vice President

Within forty eight hours Senator Barrack Obama will be the nominee of the Democratic Party for the Office of President of the United States. Congratulations to Senator Obama. What an accomplishment. What an historical event. You clearly deserved to win. You ran a long, difficult, well managed campaign that brought you to a terrific victory.

However, lest anyone believe that the road to the presidency at this point is an easy one, think again. Although your campaign doesn't talk about it, you had a terrific February, but the last couple of months have not been so impressive. John McCain is a solid alternative, and many who have any kind of a question at all about your candidacy will feel comfortable going with McCain. To win this campaign everything is going to have to be firing on all cylinders. There needs to be not merely a pretense of party unity, but the real thing.

There is no reason to believe that a single person who plans to vote for Senator Obama would decide not to if Senator Clinton were on the ticket. Her addition to the ticket, however, would immediately bring about genuine party unity. She can bring the support of blue collar workers, Hispanics, senior citizens, swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, and most importantly, women. These are all constituencies that will be needed in November. As recently as this morning I heard one pundit say that Senator Obama can not win the presidency without them. There really is no political downside for her to be on the ticket. If she doesn't want the job, then the Senator should use his negotiating skills to convince her, because her support will be needed. It will not be enough for her to stand on the stage briefly with hands joined and raised in the air. I would only add that if there is concern about the two being able to work together, then how will the Senator be able to negotiate with Iran, Syria, Russia and China?

By the way, although no longer really relevant, I am wondering why so many pundits are having troble accepting the fact that the Clinton campaign counts Michigan in the popular vote. Did they not watch the procedings on Saturday? The Democratic party chose to seat the entire Michigan delegation and awarded delegates that were in some way based on the Michigan primary. The party has validated the counting of the votes. Why is it wrong to count the votes of people who went to the polls and voted for Hillary Clinton, but it is somehow O.K. to make a decision that everyone who went into the polls and voted not for Senator Obama, but for undecided, should have their votes given to the Senator???