The Hillary snub factor

Since becoming the presumptive nominee back in June, Barack Obama had a standard response to the often asked question "is Hillary on your short list?"  

His typical answer: "She would be on anyone's short list."

Anyone but his, as it turns out.  The Hillary-isn't-being-vetted story seems to be taking on a life of its own, mostly because ... um ... Hillary wasn't vetted, and it's really bothering many of her supporters.

It was a stupid and unnecessary mistake on Obama's part not to at least go through the motions, and it's going to make problems for him not only in Denver -- where there will undoubtedly be some raucous displays of support for her -- but in the general election as well.  Obama still hasn't closed the deal with a full third of Hillary's supporters, and not vetting her certainly isn't going to help the matter. 

It was always a long shot that Obama would ask Hillary to join the ticket.  There was too much bad blood, too many hard feelings, and too little reconciliation to ever make it a possibilty.  Ok, fine.  Totally understandable.  Plus, who would want the specter of Bill Clinton Monday-morning quarterbacking the campaign at every step of the way.

But he should have at least gone through the motions of vetting her -- give the impression that she was under consideration.  It's sort of a minor FU to Hillary's supporters that he didn't even pretend to be interested in her.  And with the race tightening over the past week, it's just plain bad politics to semi-alienate a bloc of voters that he desperately needs to win over.  Not vetting her makes no sense at all, and in the end could be the margin of difference in a very close election.