This is blueskying here. Bear with me, ok?
I'm trying to imagine what the reactions would be from the press, supporters and others--particularly soft-support Dems (ABB above any other real support) and independent voters.
As things look today, Kerry's out ahead and could run away with it. Of course... the game's far from played out, and in politics anything can happen (and not infrequently, does).
That does, however, mean that people start casting around for alternatives, ways to stop a front runner (as we've seen before).
And we have a very front-loaded primary....
So, replying to someone in another diary, the thought crossed my mind...
What if two candidates made a public bargain, not that one would be the other's VP (which would be death for one campaign, an endorsement for the other...), but that one of them would be the other's VP--whichever way the delegate vote panned out?
How would you react? How do you think the press and public would?
We've talked about Dean/Clark and Clark/Dean before. But not in this way. Since Edwards is my second choice, I'm framing this hypothetical in terms of Dean and Edwards making such a bargain.
Would it increase support? Decrease it?
I can see positives--it would be presentable as a unity ticket to the voters who want to see that the campaign isn't going to leave the party so bloodied that the GE is lost. As long as it works....
My view is that the two least likely pairings are Kerry-Dean (bad blood right now, and they're both New Englanders; a purely regional ticket is... well, "unbalanced") and Clark-Edwards (neither is leading now, and again, a regional ticket).
(And would this drive the other two into a similar bargain... with what effects?)
Discuss.