Report: White House Offered Hillary VP Spot

Ed Klein, author of "The Amateur," on Thursday told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was approached by the Obama administration to replace Joe Biden as Vice President.

"Up until just a couple of weeks ago the White House was putting out feelers to see if Hillary would accept the vice-presidential nod and replace Joe Biden," Klein told Kudlow. "Bill Clinton was, I’m told, urging his wife to accept the number two slot. He saw this as a great launching pad for her for running in 2016."

"But then Hillary had lunch in the White House a couple of weeks ago with Valerie Jarrett -- Michelle [Obama]’s best friend, senior adviser to both the first lady and the president … and she told Valerie that she would not accept the vice president’s spot. The lunch was ostensibly about other matters, but it came up. … Hillary felt burned out after four years as Secretary of State. But I’m told there were more important reasons for her not accepting," he added.

But why did Hillary supposedly turn down the offer? Apparently, according to Klein, she felt that by accepting the VP nod, she’d damage her chances of running in 2016, which is to say she’s distancing herself from the Obama administration and its policies.

“She felt that if she were on the ticket with Obama and he lost, she would be tarred as a loser when she tried to run in 2016,” Klein said. “On the other hand, if she was on the ticket and he won, and he continued his far left-wing socialistic policies, she’d have to defend those policies when she ran in 2016 [emphasis added].”

Watch Klein and Kudlow discuss the rumored VP swap [via CNBC]:

Final Thought via the inimitable Ed Morrissey:

I’m skeptical about whether this took place, and whether Obama can even make a switch at all at this point. But I don’t think Hillary would be the best choice anyway. He’d be better off trying to convince Evan Bayh or even Michael Bloomberg to sign on. I’m not sure either man would want the job, but Bayh isn’t doing anything else at the moment. And Bayh would have been a better choice in 2008, too.

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Front page photo source: The AP.