I was mulling over some of the suggested VP candidates today, and grimacing as each one just seemed to come up short:
Kathleen Sebelius? Sorry, but she was just boring as hell giving the Democratic response to the State of the Onion (I call it that because it stinks). Kansas' electoral votes just aren't worth it.
Napolitano out in Arizona? If I can't even remember her first name off the top of my head, why would the rest of the country be interested in her? Yeah, there's the regional appeal, but I think the VP should have some national exposure.
Wes Clark? Jim Webb? If Obama were looking for balance against his "inexperience" in foreign policy and military affairs, that would be one thing. But he's made it clear he doesn't need that kind of support on the ticket, and doesn't want to look like he wants or needs it.
So...
My first criteria for the VP candidate:
- Some kind of national exposure. Not necessarily a household name, but someone where most of America will say, "Oh, yeah, her/*him*... I like her/him."
- An important demographic and/or regional following. Western or Southern are the most obvious regional, women the most obvious demographic.
- Someone who knows politics, but hopefully not a Washington bubblehead. Obama'll probably have Biden, Edwards, and maybe Clinton on his Cabinet, but the VP should be someone else who hasn't been inside the Beltway so long they've forgotten how to breathe ordinary air.
- Surprise factor. I think Obama needs to pick someone who'll make the country sit up and take notice. Not someone who'll take away from the "Change" meme, but someone who will add to it. A "liberal Republican" or former Republican, like Lincoln Chafee, would be in this category.
I thought about one of the Sanchez sisters from California. Especially Loretta -- she's a Blue Dog, but has taken some good, principled stands on issues like educational funding and the Iraq AUMF. Fiscally conservative (but not in the insane Club for Growth meaning of the term), and socially liberal. But a Congressional Rep on the ticket is almost as bad as another Senator.
Someone here suggested Caroline Kennedy, who's on his VP search committee, but I don't think that idea quite cuts it. She's not a very public figure -- she has some respect, but it's largely in the abstract sense.
There was one idea I toyed with...worth it just for the number of Republicans' heads that would explode at the announcement (and no, I won't include the icky video from "Scanners" that another dKos'er did recently). And it was inspired by the suggestion of Caroline Kennedy: her cousin, Maria Shriver.
Western, a woman, married to a Republican governor, incredibly well-known, photo- and telegenic as all hell, a public Obama supporter, and a Kennedy. The McCain campaign would be calling up armies of plumbers to unplug their toilets -- they'd all be stopped up with bricks!
But I doubt that Obama could argue that Shriver had passed the now-infamous "Commander-in-Chief threshold," and after fighting that battle so long on his own behalf, I don't think he'd be willing to fight it on someone else's.
So, new criterium:
- Someone who can obviously take over on Day Two, if something happens to Obama on Day One. ("If something, God forbid, were to happen to me and Michelle, I would want to make sure that I had planned for my daughters' futures, including making sure they would be left in the care of someone I could trust implicitly and absolutely. I want to be just as careful in picking the person to whom I would entrust the country I love.")
It's way too late at night for me to come up with the magical someone who could meet all or even most of these.
Thoughts, anyone?