Welcome back for more v.p. speculation! I had a doctor's appointment today, so I'm a bit late posting, but I decided to go ahead as it is still the 5 o'clock hour here on the left coast. As promised two threads ago, since the top 14 average vote-getting candidates list was unchanged from the previous thread I ran, today's will present the second tier of vote-getters and add one new name not yet tested here, Fmr. Sen. Tom Daschle (SD), who replaces Gov. Ted Strickland (OH), who definitively took himself out of contention yesterday.
I'm thinking of running some "break-out" polls after that, perhaps by age, sex, military experience, place on the political spectrum, etc., some of which I've done before, but we'll see about that after the next thread.
Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. 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..." "Oh my God, where's Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.
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My personal favorite running mates for Obama remain Fmr. Sens. Sam Nunn (GA) and John Edwards (NC).
And, n.b., I won't ever be including Gov. Ed Rendell (PA), largely because of this:
That's some pretty heavy baggage I don't want to see on the news every day until November.
I'm also not including some who might make good choices, but probably not in 2008, though I know some may disagree, notably: Sen. John Kerry (MA), who I like for Secretary of State or Defense or another position, Govs. Christine Gregoire (WA) and Brian Schweitzer (MT), who need to run for reelection and Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA), my senator who I like, while not always agreeing with her on everything, because I feel that ticket would be too easily caricatured as the most liberal ticket in the universe and etc., etc. I know, I shouldn't be influenced by that likelihood, but I think that ticket would have too many liabilities not outweighed by possible electoral strengths. (I think that about some other names I've included anyway, but they've done very well in polling, so that's how they got their pass.) I also haven't included Sen. Evan Bayh (IN) yet, because...zzz...Wha?! What happened? Maybe I'll run him in the poll sometime if I don't fall asleep typing his name....
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. You could pick your favorite of the listed names and agitate for someone else below, or vote "Other" and agitate below. Again, "You're stupid for not including..." ain't nice, especially if you've read the notice above about the purpose of today's poll. 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 coming around tomorrow or very soon. Be patient, or don't and post a different v.p. thread. One a day is free!
Thanks,
Alex
Choose Our President 2008
P.S. I recently reset the monthly poll questions on my own site from Democratic presidential and vice presidential preference (now that we have our nominee!) to Democratic vice presidential preference and Republican vice presidential likelihood (two-step poll, follow the links), so you can vote there, too, if you'd like. You'll notice I have a much more truncated v.p. shortlist there, reflecting my predictions and/or the probabilities as I now see them.