I should point out that, while my top 2 are foreign policy picks, I don't think Obama necessarily needs a foreign policy VP. Obama is completely capable of handling foreign policy. Picking a foreign policy guy could even have the detrimental effect of confirming the idea that Obama himself is lacking in that area. However, there are certainly voters out there who worry about Obama in foreign affairs and I think the right VP could help just as Cheney helped Bush get elected. That's just a long way of saying that whether a person knows or doesn't know foreign policy wasn't a major factor in this list.
5. Evan Bayh (Senator from Indiana)
He could actually deliver a state that McCain expects to win with his family's name and may help elsewhere in the Rust Belt. I'm not sure he is much more than a name, though. He is a good politician, but a little too much of a typical politician. He's very boring, and supported Hillary and the War in Iraq. Those two things aren't terrible in themselves, but they indicate that he has no political courage. I wouldn't blame Obama for making the pick, but I really dislike Bayh.
4. Kathleen Sebelius (Governor of Kansas)
By some perverse Clinton logic, any other woman as VP would be a slap in the face to Clinton. That's one reason I like Sebelius! For another, she has almost impossibly high approval ratings in a deeply red state. And she plays into a Democratic Western Strategy. She may also help Obama remind voters that his mother's family is from Kansas. She personally is the daughter of a popular politician from the battleground state of Ohio. She and Obama seem to get along very well and she was an early ally. Unfortunately, she seemed extremely boring in the State of the Union response.
3. Tim Kaine (Governor of Virginia)
I can't figure out if he looks creepy or down-to-earth. He has a law degree from Harvard, was an early endorser and reportedly gets along very well with Obama, and hails from an important state. He has very little experience, though, even in domestic politics. He is personally pro-life but says the right things about favoring pro-choice policies. The Democratic Party is going to be pro-choice, but Obama and Kaine may be able to soften the image created by folks like NARAL. He has seemed fine in interviews.
2. Wesley Clark (Retired General)
He got into trouble and Obama was quick to denounce him a while back, so I'm thinking he's not a likely pick. He is not even expected to be at the convention, but that could be a fake out. If he is the VP, the fact that he is a Clintonite could help unite the party. His background is very impressive. Seriously, check out his Wikipedia page. West Point valedictorian. Rhodes Scholar. Vietnam War hero. His master's degree thesis was a precursor to the Powell Doctrine. Strong leadership as he moved up the ranks in the Army. Supreme Allied Commander during Kosovo. He shores up Obama's military and foreign policy credentials real quick. I'm not totally comfortable with Clark, but there are worse options.
1. Joe Biden (Senator from Delaware)
He was my second choice in the primaries. He has extensive experience working in the Senate where he will preside as VP. He has a lot of foreign policy experience as a result of his activities in the Senate and is eager for a fight on foreign policy. He would be great at attacking McCain and it would be even more powerful coming from Biden as they have worked together and been friends for many years. He would kill anybody in the VP debate, one of the most important qualifications of a VP candidate. He doesn't pull any punches. His "a noun, a verb, and 9/11" comment about Giuliani was genius. I like that he doesn't seem to have much of a filter on what he says, but that is his biggest drawback as a VP candidate. He will say something very controversial between now and November, and it is not Obama's style to take risks. Delaware is almost a Southern state, so Biden would probably be good at connecting with conservative independents. If I had confidence that Biden could avoid causing problems for Obama, he'd be far and away my favorite option. As it is, he's only slightly preferable to the others.
*. Brian Schweitzer (Governor of Montana)I haven't read anywhere that he is on the short list. He's probably more a part of the Democratic Party's future than its present. But he's an exciting politician. I have only seen a few interviews with him, but he seems intelligent, genuine, and mainstream. The picture is Schweitzer downing a shot to celebrate after personally delivering the liquor license to allow the re-opening of a Montana bar made famous by Kerouac. The Democrats have a better chance of turning the West blue than the South. He could help. On energy policy, he is a big advocate of coal gasification and liquefaction. Oh, and he speaks Arabic! Here's the case for Schweitzer from FiveThirtyEight.com.
2 comments:
Are you signed up to get the text message announcement? That will be how his campaign breaks the news.
Of course!
If it's Bayh or Clinton, I might throw my new iPhone against a wall.
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