Welcome back for more Obama v.p speculation. We are down to the top three candidates now in our current elimination series, begun eleven threads ago with 14 of the top average vote-getters from my v.p. polls so far.
Once again we'll take away one chair and stop the music with your votes to see who will remain tomorrow. You should feel free to discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments, hence the name open thread. The correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case, "I believe __ __ should be Obama's v.p. running mate because..."
This poll won't be including new names until this elimination series has finished, but feel free to suggest any new names for then. There's still enough room to turn all the options over a few more times. My current plan is to test a few names I haven't yet in the first post-elimination poll in a few days, including Sen. Joe Biden (MBNA), Fmr. Vice President Al Gore (TN), Fmr. Sen. Bob Graham (FL), Reps. Patrick Murphy (PA), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD) and Joe Sestak (PA) and Fmr. Gov. Mark Warner (VA), and also re-running some previously tested names who didn't do as well as some others so far. Then I'll reaverage and run the top choices overall the next day.
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The original field was:
Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH)
Gen. (Ret.) Wesley Clark (AR)
Fmr. Sen. John Edwards (NC)
Sen. Russ Feingold (WI)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE)
Gov. Tim Kaine (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Ray Mabus (MS)
Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO)
Gov. Janet Napolitano (AZ)
Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA)
Gov. Bill Richardson (NM)
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (KS)
Gov. Ted Strickland (OH)
Sen. Jim Webb (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Ray Mabus (MS), Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH), Govs. Janet Napolitano (AZ) and Ted Strickland (OH), Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO), Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA), Sen. Russ Feingold (WI), Gov. Tim Kaine (VA), Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) and Gen. (Ret.) Wesley Clark (AR) were previously eliminated, and averaging yesterday's votes into the total votes means that Fmr. Sen. John Edwards (NC) has now been eliminated as well.
My personal favorites remain Nunn and Edwards.
Please cast your vote, speculate away, offer new names or general ideas about how Barack Obama should pick his running mate and who it should be. Again, "You're stupid for not including..." ain't nice. Promote your own candidates all you like, but yes, I've probably thought about them, and if they're not listed in the poll today, they may be back soon, after this elimination series has concluded.
Thanks,
Alex
Choose Our President 2008