Many people here know that I think Jesse Jackson Jr. would be the best choice for Vice President, for any Democratic ticket. Almost everyone here has also at one time or another offered his or her insight into a possible veep choice for the nominee. So, in the spirit of democracy and political junkie speculation, I am going to present a series of polls to sift through the numerous people mentioned as potential Democratic running mates.
Due to the sheer volume of potential veeps that have been mentioned by people in the threads, it will be necessary to break up the choices into several different categories. The categories will be as follows:
Current Presidential Candidates
Foreign Policy Credentials
Groundbreakers
Material Benefit
Swingers (states and regions, that is)
Wildcards
Each category will be presented as a separate diary entry. Each new entry will be posted several hours, though not necessarily a full day, after the previous entry has been posted. Voting in each category will be closed the first time I notice the diary below #30 in the "more diaries" section.
Some candidates will be in multiple categories. For example, Bob Graham will be in both the Foreign Policy Credential poll and the Swingers poll.
Candidates will advance to the open ballot if they win any of the six categories. Any candidate that wins one category will be removed from consideration in future polls (until the final open ballot, of course). The six candidates who finish second in each category will be placed in a seventh category where they will be voted on once again. The top three candidates in the seventh ballot will advance to the open ballot.
The open ballot will have nine candidates. If no candidate receives more than 50% on the first open ballot, then there will be a second open ballot. The second open ballot will include only those candidates who received 15% of the vote or more on the first open ballot. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote on the second open ballot, there will be a third and final open ballot that will include only the top two voter getters from the second ballot.
If I leave anyone out of any category, just let me know in the comments section, and I will include that candidate in the Wildcards poll.
Anyway, the first category is Current Presidential Candidates. Enjoy!