Interesting how all discussion second-guessing Obama's vp pick is limited to a very specifically limited set of names. Surely, in a country as wide and diverse as this, there must be other equally smart choices available. Why has the conversation been so redundant?
And furthermore, why are most posters simply arguing the case for their favorites, as the key to predicting who Obama will actually choose (or has already chosen)? One thing we have learned this year is that Obama and his team can be unpredictable in thought-provoking ways.
Trying to approach problem-solving the way they seem to - using it to tease out additional information - I can imagine that they might have started by soliciting a long list of names to vet. After eliminating some, their strategy could have been to say in confidence to each remaining candidate, we're considering you, but keep it confidential - don't mention it to anyone. Over the course of time, some of these candidates (or their supporters) would have yielded to temptation and allowed a tiny leak here or there: these would be the names now so repetitively mentioned. The campaign would then have crucial information that they could have gotten no other way - that is, which potential picks can be trusted to keep a confidence when asked.
It would be a smart strategy and one that would inevitably mean, as some have noted, that the nominee will be a dark horse. My own guess is that it will go on until an announcement is made mid-Olympics (mid-August), when we'll all be too otherwise preoccupied to overthink the choice, and too exhausted by the topic in general to argue with him.