Ether.

Prepare for one of those short, bullshit soap box joints that I hate. Something nice is cooking. 

Some of you have made the plea for Obama picking Mean Joe Biden, a tough-nosed hawk, for VP. Others have made the plea for the governor of Virginia and senator from Indiana, in the hopes that one of those two could deliver states that would be hard to win without an inside candidate. Fyuck that shit. You don’t get the chance to pick a Clinton for vice president that often. When that chance comes, you jump on it.

Even if this Clinton has race-baited? Even if this Clinton has dreams of becoming President? Even if this Clinton really hopes you don’t win the general election? Even if this Clinton refused to acknowledge your victory as the presumptive nominee the night you secured the win? Even though this Clinton calculatedly floated the word and idea of “assassination” in the air when asked why she wouldn’t admit defeat?

Four. Sho!

Sure, you might lose some uncommitted independents, but what do you gain? You get the dirtiest players in the game actually playing with you. You get the candidate who probably won the popular vote in the primary. You get someone who could get some of those over 40 white women who are sad as fuck about what happened in the primary. You get a vice presidential candidate who actually matters. Hillary Clinton matters! Biden, Bayh and ol’ boy from Virginia … not so much. When was the last time a VP actually delivered a swing state?

Here’s what we know …

Republicans do not want it with the Clintons! Unlike you, no one expects the Clintons to play clean. We know that with the Clintons we get what my cousin calls “a primetime boss bitch” and “the biggest political gangsta of our lifetime.” Since Obama has to stay virtually clean, we might need that.

And I kinda/sorta don’t wanna hear from those supposed ultra left who are gonna say all kinds of legitimate, but not very pragmatic shit about Hillary’s questionable ethics or Barack’s placating the moderate left and right. This is politics. And, real talk, the political is personal. If you’ll settle for less than perfection in your personal relationships (which I’m sure you do), isn’t it okay to settle for less than perfect in your political choices for President? And if you are remotely “progressive,” will you ever get a perfectly progressive candidate for President? Remember back in day, when all the so-called progressives voted for Nader to prove a point. Four years later, they were trying to get arrested at anti-Bush rallies, talking about how utterly unbelievable this “War on Terror” has been. Four years after that, some of those jokers are still talking about voting for Nader again or Cynthia Ann McKinney. I asked it then, and I’ll ask it now: Are ya’ll motherfuckers really serious?

I’m not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t harshly critique and organize around issues that our less than perfect President fails to support. But political, pragmatic support and all out belief are two different things. I believe Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are flawed political opportunists who might be more Bush or more Bill than I’d like to admit, but they give us a legitimate chance of becoming a more loving, responsible, compassionate, critical nation (and world) across executive and judicial lanes.

Am I crazy? Let’s hear from you. Who would you pick and why?

Ether.