Ok - lot's of talk going on right now about who Barack Obama should select as his running mate. Most of the pundit/journalists are fixated on an Obama/Clinton ticket, because a) pundit/journalists are lazy, and b) pundit/journalists are stupid. So, who shoud be the running mate? Interesting question...
Ok, first things first - it should not - SHOULD NOT - be Hillary Clinton. In fact, I don't really think it should be ANY Senator. Three reasons for this: 1. Barack Obama is running a "change" campaign, so it shouldn't be anyone who has been in DC for a long time, eliminating all the veteran Senators, and it also shouldn't be a novice Senator (like Jim Webb), because that would mean Obama would be running with a carbon copy of himself. 2. Barack Obama will have to deal with the whole "is he prepared" garbage all campaign long, so it would help to have a running mate with a background featuring executive experience. 3. People like voting for governors: 5 of the last 6 elected Presidents were governors. The voters won't have a choice this time around - there will be 2 Senators running, but one ticket has a governor and the other does not, the voters may be more comfortable voting for the ticket that does; I'm not saying that will be a huge difference, but hey, every vote counts, right?
So, Democratic Governors: 11 support Obama, 11 support Clinton, 6 are neutral (and will stay that way). Toss the ones who supported Clinton. That leaves 17 (18, couting the DC mayor).
In Barack's corner: Janet Napolitano (Arizona), Rod Blagojevich (Illinois), Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas), Chris Gregoire (Washington), Tim Kaine (Virginia), Chet Culver (Iowa), Deval Patrick (Massachusetts), Jim Doyle (Wisconsin), Bill Richardson (New Mexico), Brad Henry (Oklahoma), Dave Freudenthal (Wyoming). Also, Washington, D.C., mayor Adrian Fenty.
Neutral: Bill Ritter (Colorado), Steve Beshear (Kentucky), Brian Schweitzer (Montana), John Lynch (New Hampshire), Phil Bredesen (Tennessee), Joe Manchin (West Virginia).
Now, we're getting somewhere. Let's cut it down again by dropping the Governors who are going to be too busy running their own re-election campaigns to be the VP nom, as well as getting rid of the folks from ridiculously safe states:
Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, Tim Kaine, Chet Culver, Jim Doyle, Bill Richardson, Brad Henry, Dave Freudenthal, Bill Ritter, Steve Beshear, Phil Bredesen.
11 solid choices. Personally, I think it would be wise to choose a woman for the VP slot, given the tone of this campaign. We can not ignore the fact that a lot of baby boomer and older women have been turned off by what they feel is an underqualified male taking the job that should, by all rights, belong to a more qualified female. I don't believe this, of course, but it is out there and it should be accounted for. Besides, while neither Arizona nor Kansas should be a state in contention, they do each border states (New Mexico, Nevada for Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, for Kansas) that should. So, I have Sebelius 1 and Napolitano 2; Tim Kaine, Bill Ritter, Bill Richardson, Chet Culver, and Jim Doyle also intrigue me - in that order - because they come from states that ARE going to be swing states.