Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Possible VPs: The Good, the Bad, and Evan Bayh

For whatever reason I had this sense today that Obama was going to pick his VP soon, so I figured take a quick look at the people who are rumored to be in the running.

The Good

Wes Clark:
The best choice of the remaining candidates in my opinion. He is a fantastic surrogate and attack dog, progressive on the vast majority of issues and would end debate of Obama's national security experience. Unlike almost everyone else he is unafraid to mention that McCain is a moron without first talking about what a great person he is. At this point Clark would be great, and so much so that with the way Obama's campaign has been running of late I'm not getting my hopes up.

Bill Richardson: Has lots of experience on international affairs and had the best plan to get out of Iraq in the primary. My only negatives are that he's kind of gaffe prone and that isn't really something you'd like from your VP.

The OK

Chris Dodd: The perfect netroots candidate! He's great on civil liberties and pretty bad on banking (he's the chair of the committee) and working class issues! In all seriousness I'd wouldn't but I also be upset with Dodd, and especially with some of the other names being floated out there.

Katherine Sebelius: I know very little about her, and she doesn't have much of a record on anything so it would be pretty hard to predict what she would bring to the table. Not a huge selling point, but it would be pretty cool to have woman VP who isn't a racist clod. Her selection would be nice if only to watch the Hillary-or-no-one-else feminists argue about how picking a woman was disrespectful to Hillary.

The not really OK but so much better than the last two

Joe Biden: He's a master of colonial rhetoric and imperialistic statements on Iraq. He's prone to gaffes and is a great attack dog in 1 out of every 5 TV appearances. He doesn't really bring anything to the table, and he occasionally takes from it since his previous pro war stance doesn't really mesh with Barack's message. Again, he only looks like an OK option when you compare him with the other people being considered.

The Catastrophically Bad

Tim Kaine: He's not a very good speaker. He's "strongly" pro-right to work, a law that comes as close as you can get to outlawing unions. He loves coal. He repealed the estate tax. His record since his election is so bad that the blog that was dedicated to his election, "Raising Kaine", changed their name and disavowed him. No, no and no.

The Evan Bayh
Evan Bayh on Iran:
You just hope that we haven't soured an entire generation on the necessity, from time to time, of using force because Iraq has been such a debacle. That would be tragic, because Iran is a grave threat. They're everything we thought Iraq was but wasn't. They are seeking nuclear weapons, they do support terrorists, they have threatened to destroy Israel, and they've threatened us, too.
As DLC as they come on economic and foreign policy issues, he would be a disaster of a choice. Evan Bayh immediately undermines Obama's message of change and his strong position on ending the war. His pick would be giving as large of a middle finger possible to Obama's progressive support, and while he has made some horrific choices recently, none would be as bad as this. He's spawned a stop Evan Bayh facebook group, which is pretty damn impressive. This pick simply cannot happen.

As of today, the rumor is that it's 50/50 chance that it goes to Bayh. Do you guys have any less infuriating predictions?

5 comments:

  1. Ok, here goes.
    Two dark horses for the pool.
    Senator Jack Reed. Although he says he hasn't been
    asked for information, maybe that changed. Says he
    wasn't interested in the Vice Presidency, but that could change. Liberal credentials intact, even Labor jj,
    and seems very straightforward. No girl friends
    hanging around, straight up good guy overall. Harvard
    alum as well. Does pro bono work on housing issues. Reinforces change message because he
    is definitely an outsider. Veteran and foreign
    affairs expert.

    John Kerry.
    While not my favorite presidential candidate, could
    be interesting VP. Has been proven 100% right in
    the battle with Edwards as we now find out.
    Good character and obviously impeccable veteran credentials. Approximately half the country already
    voted for him. Early support key for Barack.

    As for the others, Bayh is a disaster--the war mongering makes him a deal breaker for me.
    Plus he is BORING and fierce Clinton backer.

    Wesley Clark, I could live with. But I do not like
    the idea of a military person as president and it's
    hard to get past that.

    Personally I like Kaine, especially his missionary work in SA and fluent Spanish. Like Barack, he
    took a hard path when an easy one was available.
    Definitely fits outsider mold. First endorser, risky
    then.

    Dodd, are you kidding?

    Richardson, always a bridesmaid. Waited too long to endorse Barack.

    Biden, same old, same old.

    Howard Dean. Now my heartfelt long time favorite would be Howard Dean, but there's no veteran stuff there.
    But Barack owes him and he owes Barack. The
    50 state philosophy benefited Barack big time,
    but on the other hand, his candidacy and grassroots approach dovetailed nicely with that
    50 state philosophy. A match made in heaven!
    So each reinforces the other. And Dean handled
    the enormously complex Clinton factor with
    dignity and aplomb. Kudos to you Howard!

    Kathleen Sebelius ? I don't think so. Not enough there, there.

    I'm still looking, if I find someone else, I'll post it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To both Obama and Richardson's credit and discredit, he and Obama seem to have a certain camaraderie. The good stuff starts at like 1:30: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZQzJiEnwx4


    I also await my text. I'm scared. It's not going to be good.

    While I would normally agree that a military person would make a terrible vice president/president, I'm pulling for Clark over anyone else. It's really not happening, though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PS: I love how Hillary hasn't even been mentioned yet. Guess it's pretty clear she's out.

    ReplyDelete
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