New York – On a day when Senator Barack Obama secured the necessary number of delegates to win his party’s nomination for president, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would accept an offer to serve as his vice president, if she is “allowed to be president most of the time, like three out of five weekdays.”
Clinton said the arrangement seemed perfectly fair to her. “If you use the ClintonTron to add the popular vote, as we did, I won more of the popular vote, as we’ve said over and over again,” Clinton said. “Which means that more people wanted me to be president than Senator Obama. So in that spirit, I think it’s only fair I get more days as president than he does. More votes, more days. I mean, it seems apparent to me. So, three days for me, two for him. I don’t even see where the issue is here.”
But Mr. Obama said the arrangement offered up by Mrs. Clinton wouldn’t quite work for him. “Uh, yeah, I think I’d have to say no to that kind of arrangement, though I haven’t talked to Senator Clinton directly about it,” Obama said, following a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota where he publicly laid claim to the nomination. “If I am fortunate enough to win the presidency of this country, I would like to actually serve as president most of the time. I, uh, I really don’t see how the vice president can serve as president more than the president. Wouldn’t that make the vice president the president? I’m very confused now.”
Later, Clinton was made aware of Obama’s reaction to her proposal. “Well, he’s just being silly,” she said, chuckling slightly. “I would still be the vice president, for Gods’ sake. I’m not trying to take the presidency away from him. He has it for two of the days, for crying out loud. And I’ll even give him one weekend day. Okay? How about that. So he gets three whole days of being president. I really don’t understand what he’s crying about.”
