Thoughts on Obama's pick for VP and Cabinet.

While I understand that the media will take something and twist it to their purpose, I don't take kindly to being misrepresented.  Mr. "I'm a fair broker, I call it like I see it" pissed me off.  If you're such a fair broker Dan, why didn't you read what I actually wrote?

In my diary How not to choose a veep, I enumerated several ways you choose a vice president out of fear of weakness, and attempted to find a running mate based on positive reasons. You can read this if you want, there were some good comments that helped me refine my thinking, particularly from ogre.

Cross the line for my New & Improved Criteria (TM). And then feel free to have at the criteria, or pimp your favorite candidate with respect to them.

I would like to get your opinions on Barack Obama selecting U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri as his running mate this fall.

I realize that her state is a neighboring state of Illinois where Obama is from; however, Missouri is a battleground state too.  It usually goes Republican.

Also keep in mind that she is a woman; a very well like woman.  I’ve seen her many times on the political pundit talk shows taking on the toughest of them all.  

She is a loyal supporter of Barack Obama.  She could bring back the women voters that support Hillary and help us win over Missouri voters.

Please take a look at her life story, visit her website and discuss her merits.  

One of the top qualifications frequently stated in Obama v.p. speculation is the wish that his running mate not be a sitting U.S. senator. McCain is likely not to pick a senator, and both presumptive nominees are already Senate colleagues.

So this edition of the poll tests the highest rated candidates in my five polls so far who are not U.S. senators, excluding Bill Moyers and Maria Shriver, which I think I will probably do in general in these polls from now on unless they should perfectly fit a particular niche poll in the future. As was pointed out during Moyers's single poll appearance so far, he's doing a great job where he is, doing what he's doing, and there are stronger possible v.p. candidates for Obama. And I don't really want Arnold as the Vice President's Husband. For one thing, I'd like to see him able to focus on his real strength, robot movies.

I have left in former senators, as they are a slightly different creature, and the two listed are national figures in their own rights.

(continued below the fold)

Jim Webb, former Navy Secretary, Aggressive Agent of Change in US foreign Policy, Son of the South, is the Vice President. He'll carry Virginia decisively, help us carry West Virginia decisively and Stay on Defense for our first Intellectual President of the 21st Century.

Now that Barack Obama has all but sewn up the nomination, real talk of VP choices for Obama is growing.

There seems to be 3 basic themes to these posts:

1. Hillary should get it if she wants it.

2. Not Hillary but a key supporter of hers, maybe a Wes Clark (my choice) or an Evan Bayh.

3. Another new face that is completely consistent with Obama's change theme.

There of course are more, but these 3 categories seem to be predominating. The rest of the diary below the fold will talk about why so many on Kos react very harshly to the Hillary Clinton idea, even if it is likely to be given the politics of the situation.

Today I was happy to learn that former senator John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama. Watching Obama and Edwards on stage together I thought these guys look like a team. Then I remembered that Edwards got 7% of the vote in West Virginia's primary, nearly 4 months after he dropped out and he's getting that level of support! This really made me think that if John Edwards will accept the vice presidency than he should be Obama's running mate.

The short version, don't play to fears of weakness, play to strength. It's all below the fold. Don't worry, I talk about how to choose a veep as well.

Did you know that, at the convention, not only is there a general roll call vote for delegates to elect their presidential nominee, but then there is also a separate roll call vote to elect the vice presidential nominee? A lot of people don't.

But you can bet the Clinton people know this. Even Mark Penn. And if she wants to be vice president, there's not really much that can be done to stop her. More after the jump.

We aren't privy to all testing data the Obama campaign will have with the various veep choices. But, lots of Kos regulars have an excellent sense of how to win and how to manage an election. It's not too early to start thinking about who would be good and what they'd bring.  Let's start talking Veep!

I've seen diary after diary on DKos, MyDD and TalkLeft espousing a "Unity Ticket" with Hillary Clinton as vice-president as a way to solve our problem regarding reuniting the Democratic Party.

While its tempting to give in to this notion, tempting to think "That's the Ticket!" my personal opinion is that it would only guarantee defeat in November.

Hillary Clinton herself has made it impossible.

I have seen continuous discussions on this site about who should be Obama's vice president, but little discussion over the AGE of the candidates. Perhaps this is because of the false assumption that we need a seasoned veteran to offset Obama's perceived inexperience. However, I strongly believe that if we truly want a long lasting progressive majority, we really need to  take age into consideration. We need somebody that both has experience, can be perceived as a change agent, and can continue leading the progressive majority after eight years of the Obama presidency. So, let us take a look at the age of the perspective candidates (I will also give my personal analysis):

Wow, what a great, rousing speech for Obama by John Edwards just now.  I think it was one of his best, and he seemed genuinely quite comfortable to be there with that crowd.

Edwards is still my second choice for vice presidential running mate for Obama, after Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA), but that doesn't mean I'd be disappointed to see him get it. He has a lot to offer, even if people want to say he lost last time and couldn't even carry his home state. Like Nunn, he helps in places outside his home state, and might even help carry it with a strong candidate like Obama at the top of the ticket.

This is the fifth edition of this Daily Open Obama V.P. Thread. It's had a few theme polls and a few just straight up, with different combinations of candidates to vote for. Overall, 33 candidates have appeared at different times, Republican and Democrat, male and female, married and single, black, white and Latino and from all regions.

(continued below the fold)

As John Edwards walked onto the stage, he walked over to Barack Obama, gave him a hug, and it what looked like a campaign rally picture from late October, he and Barack Obama turned at the crowd, and while still embraced, put up their outer hands and waved, I'm looking for a still picture of this to put up, but the image shown below will work for now.

FOUND IT!!! EXCITED!!! This picture should be shown everywhere!

As soon as I saw this, I was immediately struck by the fact that this HAS to be what we see in November, John Edwards HAS to be the Vice Presidential candidate, and more importantly, John Edwards MUST end up being the Vice President.

http://politicalgraffiti.wordpress.c...
If John Edwards doesn't, I hope Bill Richardson will.

The Hill asked all 97 senators who are not running for president the same question: "If you were asked, would you accept an offer to be the VP nominee?"

http://thehill.com/...

My favorite responses are below the fold.  

But while we're talking about it, my fellow kos-icans, kos-acrats and kos-dependents (hmmm, sounds like a 12-step plan could help these folks, but we can talk about that later) what say you to this question?

Would you answer your Nation's call?