If Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination — and she certainly may not — her first and most important decision will be her choice of a running mate.

While the choice will be hers alone, there will be enormous pressure on her within the Democratic Party to choose Barack Obama.

It would be a unifying decision, and parties always seek unity after divisive primary battles.

Putting Obama on the ticket also would be historic in that there has never been a black vice presidential nominee. It would also be fitting in that African-Americans are the most loyal voters that the Democrats have, and no Democrat can get elected to the presidency without an overwhelming black vote.

Putting Obama on the ticket might also make possible the winning of some Southern states that have large numbers of black voters but have gone Republican in the past. (The John Kerry-John Edwards ticket did not carry a single Southern state in 2004, even though Edwards was born in South Carolina and had represented North Carolina in the Senate.)

Obama said recently: “I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I’m the nominee, goes up 30 percent around the country, minimum.” He said he could carry Mississippi and Georgia and put South Carolina in play.

While Obama was talking about what would happen if he were the nominee, even as No. 2 on the ticket, he might reasonably be expected to increase black turnout in key states.

Of course, Obama might not want to be vice president. But if he does, denying him a spot on the ticket might be very tough to do if he finishes a strong second in the primaries and caucuses.

People forget how much Jesse Jackson wanted to be on the ticket with Michael Dukakis in 1988, a ticket Jackson believed would go on to victory. (Dukakis left the Democratic Convention in Atlanta up 17 percentage points in the polls.)

As Jackson never stopped reminding people, he came in second in the primaries in 1988, getting 7 million votes to Dukakis’ 9 million. The No. 2 spot was something Jackson believed he deserved, and when it became clear Dukakis was not going to put him on the ticket, Jackson even considered a floor fight to gain the vice presidential nomination.

“If I had made the vice presidency this showdown issue, I would have prevailed,” Jackson told me afterward. “But that would have split the party right down the middle based upon race. Everybody knew I had earned it. And yet it was a moment to be magnanimous.”

Jackson concluded: “By 1992, having me, if I were to run again, or another African-American on that ticket, is like a reasonable expectation. That won’t even be radical by ’92.”

Uh, yeah.

It certainly would be easier to put Obama on the ticket in 2008 than it would have been to put Jackson on the ticket in 1988. Jackson was a highly controversial figure who had never held elective office. Obama is a U.S. senator and former state legislator and is viewed by many as a uniter, not a divider.

So why wouldn’t Hillary put Obama on the ticket?

There are two unbreakable rules for picking a running mate: Never pick anybody who might overshadow the top of the ticket, and never pick anybody you cannot completely control.

So Obama might be eliminated on both counts.

Then there is the Rule of Firsts. The Clinton campaign does not want to force too many “firsts” on the American electorate.

Electing the first woman president will be challenge enough. Electing the first woman president and first African-American vice president at the same time? Forget it; they don’t need that kind of problem. (The same reasoning might prevent New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic, from getting the vice presidential nod.)

Does this mean that only white males need apply to become Hillary’s running mate? Probably.

Which is why Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, Sen. James Webb of Virginia, and even former Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri are all having their names tossed around.

Obama has a solution to this problem: He could win the nomination.

And then he could tell Hillary why it might be too risky to have a woman on the ticket.

Source: The Politico