Now that Senator Obama is the presumed nominee, our thoughts move towards who we'd like to see as VP. This post title tells you my preference.
Making Hillary his VP would be against everything Barack stands for - a complete destruction of his principals. So, it's not going to happen. At no point so far has Senator Obama compromised, so he won't start with something so controversial! For this same reason, he shouldn't pick Evan Bayh. Bayh used horrible tactics against Obama during the Indiana primary campaign, showing his old school leanings. McCaskill is fantastic, but she is also a Junior Senator, so too inexperienced to be on the same ticket. Barack needs a governor, a general, or an elder statesman (stateswoman). How does he find someone with experience, who also is not too caught into the Washington web? My choice is Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas: http://www.governor.ks.gov/about/bio.htm and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nHp90Z2NJk. She has had great success in Kansas, is likable, and knows how to run a campaign (she's won twice). Let's not ignore the fact that, as a female, some of those Hillary supporters would feel vindicated.
Bill Richardson has proven through the primary that he is not competent as an executive branch candidate. He should be made Secretary of State. Wesley Clark often comes across as crazy, like Mike Gravel, so I think he'd hurt the campaign, like Vice Admiral Stockdale hurt Ross Perot's campaign in 1992. John Edwards - he lost his chance to be VP by not endorsing Obama. By playing it safe, he has at best earned the position of Attorney General. How about General David Petraeus? Petraeus won't be able to run because he's serving in the Middle East, but he'd be an interesting candidate. Maybe too conservative.
NYC Mayor Bloomberg? That's worthy of a book of comments...
I also would be okay with the idea of Senator Chuck Hagel: http://hagel.senate.gov/public/ Here's an interesting article from way back in December: http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=20&num=17657
Check the excellent comments by politicoswizzlestick, who answered a question about this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080222114338AAazfDL. The answer starts with, "The Obama camp has thus far wisely not leaked any VP choices..."
What are your thoughts?
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