Who Should Be VP?

[70Chip]

Assuming that Obama and McCain are the candidates who do you all think should be their running mates?

-Should Obama choose Hillary as his running mate?

This would ensure victory, IMO, but I think he hates her and her husband and would rather take his chances on his own. He figures he can win anyway and then he won't have those two breathing down his neck.

-Does he need an insider with foreign policy experience like Biden?

Biden's foreign policy credentials are really overrated. He's no intellectual. He seems to have anointed himself the Democratic Party's foreign policy elder statesman. Nobody who understands the world at all would steal a speech from a loser like Neil Kinnoch. If you're going to lift from a British Labour leader, try Wilson or Atlee - everyone knows this.

-Will he shock the world and pick someone like Colin Powell?

Interesting. I think he's more likely to pick a white woman, say, Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas. She's as liberal as he is and it would help him regain the support of some women. He needs to win women overall by 5 to 10 points, to make up for white men, whom he will lose by 20 points.

-Does McCain need to appease the far(ther) right by selecting Huckabee?

No. Huckabee isn't that much more popular with conservatives than McCain. Evangelicals feel some kinship with him, but the Grover Norquist types and the Buckleyites can't stand him.

-Should he try to appease "centrists" by selecting Charlie Crist?

I think he figures he can win Florida without him, so if he wants a candidate that can help him carry a swing state, Romney and MIchigan would make more sense. If McCain wins in Michigan, the math gets very tricky for Obama.

-Will he shock the world and pick someone like Lieberman?

Only if he wants to speak to a crowd of about 30 people at the nominating convention. Lieberman's position on social issues would cause a full scale revolt among the various people who care about these thiongs. If he wants an out of the box, novelty choice he should pick Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana. (apparently the only one in that state's history that wasn't hopelessly crooked) Jindal is the one person I see in the conservative landscape that gives me some hope for the future. Certainly you must be following him closely, SS.

What do you all think they should do?

See above. Obama/Sebelius and McCain/Jindal.