So today the Obama campaign will announce its hiring of Patti Solis Doyle, the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton. She will most likely be chief of staff for Obama's vice-presidential running mate, whoever that will be. So what does this mean?
Well, the NY Times speculates that it could be a sign of healing between the Clinton and Obama camps:
"Ms. Doyle will take the position before Mr. Obama announces his choice for a running-mate – he has not said when that will be. Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Doyle have a long friendship, and Ms. Doyle has long been one of her closest aides, until she was forced out. Could that mean – tea-leaf reading time – that Mr. Obama is really considering Mrs. Clinton for the No. 2 position, and wants to have an ally of her in place to ease the way? Perhaps."
Oooh, but the Washington Post sees the hire totally, completely differently:
"Solis Doyle -- who after her firing midway through the primaries is no longer on speaking terms with much of the Clinton inner circle, including the senator herself -- has been tapped to serve as chief of staff to the future vice presidential running mate. Not exactly a signal that Obama is considering Hillary Clinton for the job. At least that's how Clinton loyalists see it. "It's a slap in the face," Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Clinton backer, said in an interview. "Why would they put somebody that was so clearly ineffective in such a position? It's a message. We get it." She said it was a "calculated decision" by the Obama team to "send a message that she [Clinton] is not being considered for the ticket."
When will the sun come up tomorrow? Don't expect the same answer from these two papers.
