Democrat John Edwards tried to cut a secret deal with both Barack Obama and perhaps Hillary Clinton during last year’s presidential primaries, offering his endorsement in exchange for the vice presidential nomination, according to a new book by Obama’s campaign manager.

Edwards’ camp made the offer shortly before the South Carolina primary, when Obama and Clinton had split early contests and Edwards apparently believed he had “maximum leverage” to help deliver Southern white votes to whoever would give him the number two spot on the ticket, according to David Plouffe in his book, “the Audacity to Win.”

Plouffe said that Obama ruled out any deals. Obama went on to win the South Carolina primary anyway, and got Edwards endorsement in May, 2008.

The campaign manager did not mention in his book that the National Enquirer already had reported that Edwards had had an affair with former campaign aide Reille Hunter and that she had given birth to his child. Edwards later admitted the affair, but denied his paternity.

Whether the Obama campaign knew about the affair, they wanted Edwards support heading into South Carolina. Obama had won the Iowa caucuses, but Clinton had bounced back to win the New Hampshire primary.

Though Edwards hopes were fading fast to win the nomination himself, he hoped to parlay support in South Carolina into a shot at the vice presidency _ four years after he’d been John Kerry’s 2004 general election running mate.

“Publicly his team insisted they could resuscitate his campaign in South Carolina. But privately, it soon became clear they knew otherwise, and some time after the debate, I got a call from a senior Edwards adviser,” Plouffe wrote in his book.

Plouffe continued:

“This was the pitch: ‘Listen. It's clear unless the race is shaken up, Hillary is going to win. You guys might not even win South Carolina. What would shake the race up is John ending his campaign, but not simply to endorse another candidate. All things being equal, John prefers Barack. They should announce they are joining forces and will run as a ticket. Edwards can vouch for Obama with blue-collar and Southern whites and is running on a change message.’”

The Edwards adviser told Plouffe that Obama and Edwards would be a “perfect fit” and that the pre-nomination announcement of a ticket would knock Clinton off stride, if not out of the race.

“It has to be something that big to slow down Hillary. You need a big shakeup in the race and this could be it,” the Edwards adviser told Plouffe, according to Plouffe’s account.

“I listened intently,” Plouffe said, “and replied that obviously this was something I would need to discuss with my boss. `Am I authorized to raise this offer with him?’ I asked.

“`Yes,’ came the reply. But then right at the end of the conversation, the Edwards rep added a new wrinkle: `Just to be clear, we're going to talk to the Clinton people too. That's not where John's heart is, but he is at a point of maximum leverage now. We want to see what each of you is thinking.’

“My initial reaction was that this was a nonstarter. Of course we wanted Edwards's support and his message was certainly closer in spirit to ours than it was to Hillary's. But political deals like this rarely work; people see right through them.

“Plus I couldn't imagine Obama agreeing this far out to lock in his running mate without going through any process or even being certain that we would be the ones making a selection.

“Obama's answer was quick and firm: he would cut no deals. If he won, he did not want to be locked in to any personnel matters, and he had little interest in deciding on a vice presidential pick in the heat of the primary campaign.

Obama spoke directly with Edwards, Plouffe said, and reiterated that there would be no promises or deals in exchange for an endorsement, Plouffe said.

“Clearly there could be a potential role for him down the line. But if he endorsed us now, there could be no hint of something concrete in the future.”

When Plouffe spoke later with the Edwards adviser, it was “clear” that Edwards had briefed him on the Obama talk. Plouffe said the Edwards camp pressed again that they were still talking to Clinton’s campaign as well.

“The contact said that while John's inclination was to be with Obama, it seemed the Clinton folks were more intent on gaining his support,” Plouffe said.

“He did not allude to specifics, but the message was that Hillary might offer specific commitments,” Plouffe said.

“I strongly doubted that Clinton was offering Edwards anything concrete, and certainly not the VP slot. She knew better than most how important decisions like this were, and I had a hard time believing that even a crucial endorsement on on this level, days before South Carolina, would warrant much more than a thank-you and a promise to talk further down the line.”

Plouffe added that he does not know if Edwards personally sanctioned the talk of a backroom deal for the vice presidency.

Edwards could not be reached for comment.

Drawing near to a final decision on a new Afghanistan strategy, President Obama met with top aides for the 8th time Wednesday and stressed that if he does send more troops there as requested, the US commitment will NOT be open ended.

“The president and his team discussed the length of time that it would take to implement the options he’s been presented,” a White House spokesman said after the 2 hour, 20 minute meeting in the White House Situation Room.

“The President believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open ended. After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time to ensure a successful transition to our Afghan partner.”

The White House also pushed back against any suggestion that the president has decided on how many additional troops to send to Afghanistan. McClatchy reported Saturday that he’s leaning toward sending 34,000 more troops.

“Contrary to published reports, the President has not made a decision about the options presented,” the spokesman said.

Barack Obama thought seriously about picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate but thought Bill Clinton would be “”too big a complication,” according to a new book by former campaign manager David Plouffe.

“What surprised me at [our first meeting to discuss the vice presidency] was that Obama was clearly thinking more seriously about picking Hillary Clinton than Ax (David Axelrod) and I had realized,” Plouffe writes in the new book, “The Audacity to Win,” according to excerpts obtained by Time magazine.

“He said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list. She was competent, could help in Congress, would have international bona fides and had been through this before, albeit in a different role. He wanted to continue discussing her as we moved forward.

“We met again a couple of weeks later in mid-June and winnowed the list down to about 10 names. At our next meeting, we narrowed the list down to six. Barack continued to be intrigued by Hillary. `I still think Hillary has a lot of what I am looking for in a VP,’ he said to us. `Smarts, discipline, steadfastness. I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship."’

Plouffe writes that neither he nor Axelrod liked the idea of picking Clinton, I large oart of what he called complications in the campaigning together and governing should they win.

“We had initially received a lot of advice from many of her supporters to pick her, though this ‘advice’ was perhaps more accurately described as subtle pressure. Their fervor was abating a bit every day, though, helped by Hillary's comments that this was Obama's decision and that he should be left to make it.

Plouffe says that Clinton was not on the final list when Obama narrowed his choices in early August to three:
Sen Joe Biden of Delaware, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

“Hillary did not make the last cut. At the end of the day, Obama decided that there were just too many complications outweighing the potential strengths. But I gave him a lot of credit for so seriously thinking about his fierce former rival. Some in the Clinton orbit thought we gave Hillary short shrift. My view is that any serious consideration was somewhat surprising given all the complications and the toxicity during the primary campaign.”

As Obama headed to Hawaii for a vacation, Plouffe and Axelrod met with the three finalists.
Biden, he writes, launched a 20-minute dialogue, about why he wouldn’t want to be No. 2 and why he would be great at it.

“Ax and I couldn't get a word in edgewise,” Plouffe writes. “It confirmed what we suspected: this dog could not be taught new tricks. But the conversation also confirmed our positive assumptions: his firm grasp of issues, his blue collar sensibilities and the fact that while he would readily accept the VP slot if offered, he was not pining for it.”

Bayh, they concluded, had a short range from his top to bottom. Kaine had no experience outside Virginia. “There was no great way to explain putting someone with no foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

Talking by phone to Obama that night, the candidate said, “Well, it sounds like you both are for Biden, but barely," he said. "I really haven't settled this yet in my own mind. It's a coin toss now between Bayh and Biden.”

On Aug 17, Obama decided and phoned both Axelrod and Plouffe. “It’s Biden,” he said.

President Obama will squeeze in another closed-door Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy session this morning with top advisers. Then, he heads to Florida. He'll meet with servicemen and servicewomen in Jacksonville, and travel to Miami to raise money for Democrats.

Scheduled to attend today's Af-Pak meeting: Vice President Joe Biden (via videoconference), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones; Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security; and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Former President Bill Clinton meets with President Barack Obama today at the White House, Clinton’s first chance to meet with Obama face to face since traveling to North Korea to secure the release of two American journalists.

The private meeting, scheduled to be held in the White House Situation Room, is likely to cover anything Clinton learned or discussed about North Korea’s nuclear weapons plans. 

Coincidentally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Obama earlier in the Oval Office, her first meeting with Obama since her trip to Africa.

Traveling in Africa, America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has raised eyebrows for remarks she made about elections in Nigeria.

Clinton tried to push the message that embracing violence is never the answer, ABC News reported. But it was her reference to the disputed 2000 presidential election -- and Florida's role -- that drew attention.

"Our democracy is still evolving," ABC reported her as saying. "You know we've had all kinds of problems in some of our past elections as you might remember. In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state, so we have our problems, too."

That former governor, Florida's Jeb Bush, told ABC he was "declining to weigh in on these ill-advised comments: "But wishes Secretary Clinton a safe and successful trip."

President Obama announced today that he’ll nominate three more individuals with Clinton administration experience to serve at the State Department under Secretary Hillary Clinton. Melanne Verveer, who was chief of staff to first lady Clinton during Bill Clinton’s presidency and heads an international women’s leadership nonprofit, is the administration’s pick for a post of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. The White House also said Obama has tapped Esther Brimmer as assistant secretary for international organizations. Brimmer directs research for the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Schoolof Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and previously worked for the State Department. Phil Gordon, a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution who served on the National Security Council under President Clinton, is the choice for assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs.