Welcome back for more veep speculation! As promised yesterday, today we'll be considering the top 14 average vote-getting Southern possibilities for Obama's v.p. from these threads' polls so far--as usual, in alphabetical order. I used a pretty strict but widely accepted interpretation of "the South," including only Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. And I did not include Gen. (Ret.) Anthony Zinni, who seems to live somewhere between North Carolina and Virginia, but was born in Pennsylvania and has never been elected to office from a Southern state.
I'm thinking of running some more "break-out" polls in the coming days, alternating with the top 14 candidates, averaging in each day's votes as we go.
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 Jane/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.
(continued below the fold)
My personal favorite running mates for Obama remain Fmr. Sens. Sam Nunn (GA) and John Edwards (NC). I'm convinced the GOP v.p. nominee will be Gov. Mark Sanford (SC), so I do think it would be pretty smart to counterprogram with a strong Southerner. Then, if the GOP picks a weaker Southerner, or is even less intelligent and leaves their Southern flank completely uncovered, Obama and his running mate will be able to force them to fight, spend money and perhaps even lose on their own home territory.
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....And Gov. Ted Strickland (OH) has completely ruled out serving, as has senatorial candidate Fmr. Gov. Mark Warner (VA), so they've been retired from polling here.
But now, on to today's poll....
Thanks,
Alex
Choose Our President 2008