I assume the decision was made some time ago, and is just being kept under wraps until the magic moment.

Surely he couldn't be keeping his VP-to-be in he dark at this late date?

I don't believe this will be the case.
She has already appeared at a unity get-together.
That accomplished nothing.

It's not about Clinton - except to the extent that people are reeling from the treatment she received from the media and the Obama campaign and the DNC.

I still think Hillary is the best VP pick.  I base this almost entirely on her joint campaign appearance with Obama in late June.....They looked like a good team.  I was impressed that Hillary could absorb a disappointing loss but still be a good team player.  Okay that is my  gut instinct.   On to the facts.  The polls for Obama spiked to their highest level after their joint campaign appearance.....

On the other hand, Poblano has some stats that show Hillary only did well after the attacks against her ceased in February.  I do think the Republicans stopped attacking her at about that time.  She has not been under right wing fire, so her numbers, the argument goes, are a little inflated.  This NBC poll would tend to support that theory.

I still go back to the joint appearance in June.  It worked.  The polling shows that.  Hillary has proved since then she can be a good team player and follow Obama's lead.  She can work the change angle by saying she will help Obama implement the much needed change....With Hillary on the ticket, an Obama pivot to say that the Democrats know how to grow the economy becomes less awkward and more plausible...

For next week's Democratic convention to be a success, Hart says that not only does Hillary Clinton have to make the case to her supporters that Obama is the right choice for president

I had dinner with PUMA friends last week - and they won't vote for him unless Hillary is VP, and maybe not then even. But they won't be voting for McCain either. They either won't vote or plan to just vote downticket. My friend (Hillary supporter who will reluctantly GOTV for Obama) tried to convince them not to throw votes away and that the Supreme Court is all.

And while I see that argument too, Obama has not earned my vote. If my state was borderline I would probably hold my nose but I think I can still write in Hillary.

Obama's real problem is that he has to close the deal with a wide range of long-standing Democrats who simply doubt his experience and his readiness to lead.  I keep running into more and more people who have voted Democratic for decades but simply have serious doubts about Obama's experience and are thinking about sitting this election out.

"It won't be easy, Mr. Newhouse, the Republican pollster, said. "They've already voted once against Barack Obama, and right now, after three months of 20-20 hindsight, they're still not voting for Barack Obama."

Obama is the problem
Obama is the problem
Obama is the problem.

to be blunt, if sen. obama is all that, how come he holds such a scant lead (assuming he does) in most of the polls, if not actually showing behind the worst candidate, john mccain?

It would be a terrible mistake. There is absolutely nothing in it for her.

After the Messiah loses in November his cult followers and media groupies will blame her. They will claim he was hurt by her so called "baggage".

And if he were to win she would be completely shut out from any decision making. The guy would be another Bush, an incompetent egomaniac. Being associated with his administration would ruin her chance of ever getting elected president.

There is absolutely no up side to her taking the VP slot.

Hairball and Countdumb cite these polls and immediately move to a discussion of how Clinton has to make the case for Obama to raise those numbers. But how can she do that with voters who previously (in the last poll) supported Obama and now do not?

If he has lost voters, surely that is the fault of Obama and his campaign, and not Clinton.

So why switch from left to right? Why not just sit it out or vote for a third party candidate? I really don't get it.

Put the shoe on the other foot. Imagine that Hillary had won the nomination, but had done so by repeatedly using racist terminology to define Obama; cracked racist jokes about him, right in front of him; played a song bragging about her putdown of n***s during a campaign event; and laughed when her supporters booed and jeered at the mention of his name. Now imagine that on top of that, she played the little woman card and said over and over that it would be sexist not to vote for her, and called Obama and members of his family "chauvinist pigs" every time they criticized her.

Now imagine that to top it all off, the DNC took votes--actual votes--of several million people in two states and handed them to her, even though those people actually voted for Obama (or someone else).

This is an ugly fight to the death between the forces of darkness, and the forces of (at least) moderation.  It was never going to be pretty, but the Republicans know how to bring out the worst in the electorate.

Yes, I ended up strongly supporting Sen. Clinton as the nominee. But, it's not about Hillary Clinton anymore. There's a macro-perspective problem here with the Democratic Party machinations and manipulations during this primary nomination process that has turned off huge numbers of Democrats.

The simple, fundamental problem is the betrayal of trust by the party; that betrayal will hurt Obama in this election. And, well it should; he created his own illegitimacy by colluding in the machinations. At any point during the process, Obama could have stood up for principle. He could have not taken the 4 delegates stolen from Clinton; but he never showed any principle at all.

At the moment that the DNC/RBC gave a candidate who wasn't even on the ballot--through his own choice--all of the uncommitted delegates and 4 of Clinton's delegates, they betrayed the voters' trust. Florida and Michigan involved disenfranchisement of 2.3 Million Democrats. Those are serious betrayals of trust in my view.

Loyalty to the party was tossed out the window the moment the party showed they have little or no loyalty to the party's voters.

Thus, voters like me are now free to choose the candidate they believe has enough experience, character and guts to run this country, or the candidate which best embodies their own personal values, which is what I plan to do. I'm voting for the Green Party nominee, because I'm a progressive. I just don't support the Democratic Party any more after what I witnessed in this campaign.