From my keyboard to Barack's ears! (I'm a dreaming and a grinning)
There was an earlier Kos poll for Obama VP, but my choices weren't on it. So go there and vote if you want Clark or Webb or Kaine or Richardson or... lots of em, can't remember, they all bored me, and Al Gore got ruled out just when I would have ruled him IN. I like my choices better, so there, I mean here.
I've got eight possiblities tonight that I'm liking to think of, and here they are: AL GORE, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Edwards, Caroline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Dee Dee Myers, Donna Frye, and Eliot Spitzer. Got reasons for all of them, even Eliot. If you vote for Other, please leave a comment and say who and why.
Ok, my first choice is AL GORE, and here's why. 1) Unfulfilled presidency, I'm still waiting!, unusual times, unusual path...and he wrote the book on global warming and the book on what ails America -- we're not reasonable anymore, we're just bullies. If anybody is ready on day #1 to deal with our biggest problems, it's this guy. Plus, both Obama and Gore are big vision guys, I want them in the same room collaborating. I don't blame Al for not wanting to run for president again, but I don't think that necessarily means he doesn't want to be on the job at that level. Say yes Al!
Second choice: MICHELLE OBAMA. I know, too close? But maybe that's a good thing. They make a good team. She has strengths that complement his, he calls her his rock, and I want the most enabled President Barack possible. RFK made an excellent atty gen for JFK. So I think this is worth a vote.
Third choice: ELIZABETH EDWARDS. My sentimental favorite daughter. She's kind, smart, and no nonsense. (John can be atty gen.) We're all mortal, but she KNOWS it and isn't going to waste time on nonsense. And in her position, I think she sees through a lot of crap that most of us don't. She's aware of the issues and I especially want her input into health care and foreign policy. She's so human. I think she will be all about reaching out and solving problems rather than forcing wills or missing chances. It's her grace and steel that I think could make the VP office uniquely gifted.
Fourth choice: CAROLINE KENNEDY. Quiet, unassuming, graceful, capable, and what a great link between her father and Obama. Love it!
Fifth choice: ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. Environmentalist, author, lawyer, activist... love his dad, love him!
Sixth choice: DEE DEE MYERS. She's smart, she thinks women should be in charge, she was Bill Clinton's press secretary (for good and bad), and whenever I hear her speak she always impresses me as a very sharp, capable person with good sense and grace. I don't know. I think it, I like it, I wonder.
Seventh choice: DONNA FRYE. Donna is on the San Diego City Council. San Diego's has totally sold its soul to developers, but Donna hasn't--she's an open govt environmentalist, bottom up, not top down. Donna actually won the mayorship in 2004 as a write-in only to have it swiped away by the Registrar of Voters who ruled that voters who had only written her name in but had not also blackened the bubble too hadn't really voted. That would be 5000 people disenfranchised. Remember Gore's "A Vote is a Person" speech? We all want to count, and Donna is acutely aware of that. Two big reasons I'd love to see Donna in a bigger job: 1) She's all about transparency and open government, empowering the public, and 2) she's positive! San Diego is basically broke, and when she ran she came up with a realistic budget that could succeed. It wasn't cotton candy, and she also asked us all to pitch in with good humor and said we would work through it together. She's the ONLY candidate I know of who's framed miserable situations that way. And yet that's what I think is missing from America -- the idea that challenges are fun, that we can work through something all together and with good humor. I really, really, really want that in a leader. If she's not going to run for mayor this time, then VP's good.
Last but not least choice: ELIOT SPITZER. Probably not a name to succeed on a bumper sticker. But I just wonder if he might not be just the guy to be able to make things happen and know how to get at TVRWC that's made such a mess of our courts and our banking system and our media (and his life?). See, I'm no fan of the prostitute thing, but then again I think that's between him and his wife, and I got a problem with victimless crime, it's oxymoronic. Plus I remember something somebody said about Bill Clinton, or Bill Clinton said about somebody, that he wouldn't trust somebody who wasn't a little dirty, who hadn't made a mistake. All I'm saying is this guy has powerful motive to redeem himself and fulfill a messed-up promise, and I wonder what he'd do given the opportunity. Something spectacular?
OTHER -- If you check this box, leave a comment and say WHO and WHY.