Update: Politico just published “Hillary’s anti-Trump: Retired Admiral James Stavridis surfaces on Clinton's VP radar as she nears her final decision” By Bryan Bender and Austin Wright.
Retired Admiral James Stavridis, whose vetting as a possible vice president for Hillary Clinton has suddenly placed him in the spotlight in the run-up to her decision, has made a career as a leading warrior-scholar and iconoclast.
“Walls don't work,” he declared as the top commander of NATO in 2012. "Instead of building walls to create security, we need to build bridges.”
That makes him the perfect rejoinder to Donald Trump, whose centerpiece of his "American First" campaign is proposing a real wall along the southern border and temporarily barring Muslim immigration.
The fact that the former secretary of state felt the need to scrub someone with Stavridis' military pedigree but no political experience highlights how national security has become a key battleground in the presidential race, with her detractors criticizing her handling of the war against the Islamic State, relations with Russia, the conflict in Libya and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012. CONTINUED ON POLITICO
There is also recent speculation that Corey Booker may be in active consideration.
Alex Seitz-Wald, writing for NBC sees “Tom Perzez (as) the Last Liberal Standing on Clinton’s VP Short List.” Perez is the child of Dominican immigrants who went to Brown and Harvard and who is now Secretary of Labor.
Take almost any hot-button issue progressives care about today, and Perez likely has some accomplishment to point to on it. While leading the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and later the Labor Department, Perez has been a utility player in the Obama administration on some of the most sensitive issues.
Race and policing? He investigated the Trayvon Martin shooting and launched a record number of probes into police practices. Immigration? He sued Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona and challenged the state's tough immigration law in court. Wall Street reform? He extracted settlements from big banks and implemented new rules on financial advisors for retirement accounts.
Economic inequality? He helped extend overtime pay to 4.2 million workers and was an early advocate of the $15 minimum wage. LGBT Rights? He helped createthe Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act and oversaw its first prosecutions. Voting rights? He challenged voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina. The list goes on. NBC News
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I wrote in several diaries that if Hillary was confident she had the election locked up, she should pick Elizabeth Warren to run with her. About half the 200 or so Kos readers who I polled agreed that she’d be the best choice.
However, whether it is my panic or a rational analysis that Trump is tightening up the race, I am now thinking she should consider the VP choice as being the person most likely to gain her votes she wouldn’t already get.
I am assuming that the most ardent Bernie supporters, even those with considerable animus towards Hillary, will vote her her. Warren might help with a few of them, but I am just not sure how many on-the-fence progressive voters she’d actually swing towards Hillary.
I’m assuming Hispanics will support her whether or not she has a Hispanic running mate. In any case, Housing Secretary Julian Castro and Rep. Xavier Beccera seem to be off the top of the list.
Senator Sherrod Brown would loose his seat and a Republican would replace him, so that seems to rule him out.
While Kaine and Vilsack, who seem to be on the top of the speculation list at present, are good choices they don’t seem to add much to the ticket. They are hardly household names.
That brings me to Admiral James G. Starvidis. To say he’s not a household name would be the understatement of the year. But that should hardly matter because of the appeal he would have to so-called suburban soccer moms currently wavering in who to vote for.
Trump is stirring up a panic in many of them, and will continue to exploit their fears that only he can protect them from threats, be they homegrown or overseas.
ADM James G. Stavridis adds something to the ticket that Trump doesn’t have. The medals on the admiral’s chest actually mean something.
Rather than quote Wikipedia, you can read about him here.
