The Veep Thread

The Dems' penalty for letting Che hang around this long. She will screw this up for you so that she can turn around and run in 2012. She and Bill have got to have some reason for staying married.

 

Problem with the age thing is that most of the old folks in Florida (are the ones getting the shaft from current group of chickenhawks).

Florida is always up for grabs but I agree Bill Nelson shouldn't be his VP selection.

 

Shaft or not, they aren't putting the Demmycrats back in charge.

And no, Nelson doesn't get anywhere near the ticket. He doesn't deliver anything except a GOP Senate seat. And Obama doesn't want to make poor Fenian's head explode.

I'm beginning to think more and more that it'll be someone from the West/Southwest. That seems to be where the election might be decided. I just don't know that Richardson is all that exciting, but I don't know that Brian Schweitzer is either.

Of course, it would also be nice if candidates could choose a VP based on who they think would be good for the job, rather than who they think can deliver a particular state.

 

Well being a resident here. I can say that Gov. Crist isn't part of the Bush Republican chain, he's quite different given his love for gambling and being potentially gay (not serious but it's a running joke here in St. Petersburg).

Florida is always up for grabs. Always. This state primary voter base is undecided.

 

The rationale (without arguing the specifics) is the unborn fetus is an "innocent child," while a convicted murderer has been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing a serious crime. If you accept the definitions, it makes sense.

That was me. Obama must be hoping against hope McCain goes with Fiorina, an utterly qualifications-free, failed, fired corporate stooge-lackey who basically is a female version of Singleton/Jelenic. You couldn't possibly get someone to better epitomize the "Republicans as corporate bootlickers" stereotype (unless McCain decided to bring back Darth Palpacheney for another couple of terms).

I mean, Christ, if you're going to go to "private business" for a candidate (as if running a "private business" has much of anything to do with running a government -- the government is not a goddamn profit enterprise), couldn't you get someone who was actually successful??

 

Just saw a Washington Post story on the wire that lists five on each side.

In order, their theories are:

GOP
1. Tim Pawlenty
2. John Thune
3. Rob Portman
4. Charlie Crist
5. Mitt Romney

Dems
1. Kathleen Sebelius
2. Ted Strickland
3. Hillary
4. Tim Kaine
5. Sam Nunn

 

Pawlenty has served a an emcee/guest star at many McCain rallies. My bet is unless they go completely stupid and go with Fiorina in a deluded attempt to lure disaffected Hillary boosters, he's the man.

Sebelius makes sense for Obama -- rope in most of the Hillary people with another female candidate with mostly-similar positions.

The idea of Hillary as VP makes some sense in terms of the Vito Corleone philosophy: "keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

The problem is, unlike Cabinet members and federal appointees, the Vice President does not serve at the pleasure of the President -- there's nothing to keep Hillary from acting like a nice dutiful VP for a few months or maybe a year, then going completely off the reservation and starting to publicly defy Obama with the goal of unseating him in 2012. Nothing would be juicier meat to the media than a VP publicly battling a President -- I don't think it's happened in 200 years (since the Constitution was amended so that the VP was no longer the defeated presidential opponent of the President -- in the days when gentlemen sometimes settled disputes by pistol duels, they suddenly realized it probably wasn't a very good idea for the VP to be somebody who really, really wanted to be President, right now ).

 

McCain will pick Tim Robbins or Susan Sarandon before he picks Mitt Romney. They hate each other and Romney doesn't bring a damn thing to the ticket.

 

Well, he is younger and apparently healthier than McCain, but for that matter, so is Dick Cheney.

 

"Younger and healthier than McCain" is a pretty wide net. I'm not sure that eliminates Chester Arthur. William Howard Taft is probably out, though.

 

I think McCain's pick is probably more important than most since, due to his age and health situation, voters realize there is actually a significant chance the GOP VP nominee will, in fact, succeed to the Presidency.

They can't get away with simply throwing an unqualified foof on there for ticket demographics. It's got to be somebody who could at least theoretically function in the WH.