“The outcome of this election will affect the future of our planet…Take it from me — elections matter.” Finally, Al Gore endorses Sen. Obama. (Not exactly a profile in courage at this point, but could we really expect anything less from the man?) Well, in any case, welcome aboard.
Also joining Team Obama today: Patty Solis Doyle, who has been hired to be “chief of staff to the future vice presidential running mate.” As Doyle, “a native Chicagoan with deep ties to many senior Obama aides,” is no longer on speaking terms with Sen. Clinton (to whom she “devoted her adult life“) after having been blamed for Iowa, it would seem Clinton will not be making the veep short list. Try to contain your despair.
I don’t know anything about Doyle except what you’ve written here. One question and one thought. Wouldn’t the VP nominee usually prefer to pick his or her own chief of staff? And the thought: it strikes me as unwise to place in such an important position someone who is on such bad terms with Clinton. I don’t see kowtowing to her, but I don’t see baiting her – and her followers – either.
Hey Keara. According to the article, there’s some precedent for setting up the VP team before choosing the #2, so as to be able to hit the ground running (and, I expect, to ensure that a VP fiefdom at odds with the candidate doesn’t arise.)
As for choosing Doyle…well, the animosity between she and Sen. Clinton is relatively recent. So, one could argue they’ve already forged a solid working relationship…
It’s also a good bet that perhaps some high-level Obama folks didn’t like seeing Doyle being made the Fall Girl for the atrociously-run Clinton campaign, particularly when there’s jokers like Mark Penn afoot.
In any case, I like the pick myself. For one, it says right away that Sen. Obama isn’t going to truck with all the enemies’ list tomfoolery currently going on among the remnants of Team Clinton. For another, it’s the Chicago Way, a nice piece of political jujitsu with built-in plausible deniability. I mean, Doyle did put in over a decade of service for Sen. Clinton. Is she supposed to never work again? Put it like that and the current scorched-earth tendencies of the Clintonites looks that much more ridiculous.
Please be fair. I don’t think I suggested that Doyle should never work again. Or anything of that sort. (If you wanted to shut me up, it worked.)
No, you took me the wrong way. :S
I was referring to the stance of the hard-core Clintonites mentioned in the article, those who are calling the hire “a slap in the face,” for example. I didn’t mean it as a response to your questions…sorry about the confusion.