Who Obama should pick as his running mate? My answer is…
Attention has gingerly turned to the matter of who Barack Obama should pick for vice president. It is weird to see Joseph Biden be considered vice-presidential timber, but there he is. Bill Richardson, always thought to have been running for vice-president, is largely regarded as having lost that bid. Other names floated through — Kathleen Sebelius — probably really don’t add to Obama’s electora chances. Ed Rendell was plucked into an American Prospect article, and while he reminds me that Kerry probably would have been better off picking Gephardt over Edwards, obvious political problematics are obvious for a reason — “Mr. Clean” cannot pick a prototypical machine politician who has been serving as Clinton’s life-line.
Jim Webb I would just as soon see in the Senate. Ken Salazar is named just because of the desire to win Colorado or states out west, but suffers the basic problem of being elected in the same year as Obama to the Senate, thus not solving his major political liability.
I liked one idea. Gary Hart. This was suggested as being a “Dick Cheney like vice president” with the bonus of not being Dick Cheney. But you kind of doubt it.
A bit puzzling is the surfacing of Michael Bloomberg, who even if you figure makes sense as some sorce of influence in Obama’s administration — good or bad good and bad, makes no sense as in terms of bettering electoral chances — the proof of which is he is not running for President himself.
I heard this somewhat bizarre suggestion about Obama, which is that his candidacy will force him to have to select a white male as his running mate. Here I think I have Obama’s vice presidential pick. And I offer this name up just to screw with everyone as much as anything else.
Colin Powell.
C’MON!
The scary thing is that I think I can convince myself that this makes complete and utter sense in electoral terms. And as soon as I concoct that rationalization, I’ll post it to this blog.