So now that the campaign is in more or less full general election swing, there have been countless diaries speculating about who Obama (and to a lesser extent McCain) will tap as there Number Two. Surprisingly, these diaries seem to uniformly omit this important fact: The Vice-Presidential pick should NOT jeopardize the political position of the Democratic Party on any front.
Take, for example, the commonly-named VP candidate, the Senator Jim Webb from Virginia. On the face, it's a solid pick; swing-state name, new to the political scene, aligns well with Obama's platform. But none of these factors is as important as this fact: If Webb is the VP pick and Obama wins, the Democrats will have to FIND A REPLACEMENT US SENATOR for Virginia. And it's really not clear that they have a suitable candidate.
Let me put this in a different context. The office of Vice President is essentially a politically useless position. Besides breaking a tie vote in the Senate, the office of Vice President offers literally no political leverage. What we as a party should avoid at all costs is sacrificing a rising star like Jim Webb to fill an office that will be relevant, at most, two or three times in four years.
With this in mind, many names currently tapped as VP picks fall flat. With such a bare majority in the US Senate, we should avoid yanking away ANY of our sitting US Senators to fill a useless chair. This rules out Webb, Biden, Dodd, Clinton, McCaskill, and the many other Senators that have been mentioned. Better choices would be from the ranks of Democratic governors; while Mark Warner is not a good choice considering he's currently well-positioned to take another one of those precious Senate seats, Tim Kaine fits the bill perfectly, especially given his status as a long-time Obama supporter. Frankly I see Kaine as the odds-on favorite to get the nod, but time will tell. Similarly, Bill Richardson would be a good fit; popular governor of a swing state and also as a Latino would help shore up the Obama ticket in Hispanic circles. Edwards would also be a solid choice, as he would abandon no political office at all.
However, I think the dream pick for Obama would be a name that has been mentioned off-hand for a while now. That man is Senator Chuck Hagel. Not only would he seem to be ripe for conversion given his recent frustration with the Republican establishment, not only does his experience and credentials bolster the ticket, not only is he a popular figure in a state that could very well swing to Obama, not only would this drive home Obama's post-partisan message with a bullet, but should he accept it would leave another Republican Senate seat open for the taking in an EXTREMELY favorable political climate. Frankly, this confluence of factors makes Hagel the ideal pick for the Obama camp. If they can get him to flip Democratic (not an unlikely proposition given his recent sentiments) it would be a political coup of titanic proportions and give the Obama ticket that much more force in November.