Seems all anyone on the internet is talking about is who would make a good running mate for Barrack Obama.
I’m not helping matters by pointing you to their posts … but that’s exactly what I’m doing …
Camille Paglia on Salon, for example, says: Given the looming importance of national security concerns, I used to think that Virginia’s pugnacious junior senator, Jim Webb, an ex-Marine, would be Obama’s most prudent running mate. Obama doesn’t need some veteran pol like the 66-year-old governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, who would simply make Obama look younger than he is. Arizona’s ebullient Governor Janet Napolitano would certainly fill out my Italian-American dream ticket and help to nail down the Southwest. But I’ve come to feel that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is Obama’s best bet. She is a polished public presence who epitomizes that cordial, smoothly reassuring, and blandly generic WASPiness that has persistently defined the American power structure in business and government and that has weirdly resisted wave after wave of immigration since the mid-19th century. An Obama-Sebelius pairing would be visually vibrant and radiant, like a new day dawning.
Timothy Noah of Slate, says: On paper, Webb is the perfect choice for veep. Is Obama too closely identified with the left? Webb is a former Republican who served in the Reagan administration. Is Obama too cautious and detached? Webb is famous for speaking his mind. It’s this last characteristic that’s the problem. Webb, 62, is a bit of a blowhard. Because he’s a writer, he’s left a paper trail.
An AP story states: Barack Obama is considering former top Pentagon leaders among his possible running mates, which would address his lack of foreign policy experience and balance the military bonafides of a GOP ticket led by a war hero. Two senators who consulted Tuesday with the Democratic presidential candidate’s vice presidential vetting team said retired military generals were among the names they discussed. “We talked about many names,” North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press, including “some that are out of the box, but I think would be very well-received by the American people, including former top military leaders.”
Of course, Obama got himself a team to give him VP suggestions, and according to this story, yesterday he defended his choice of Jim Johnson to run his vice presidential search team, despite reports that Johnson got reduced rates for millions in loans from a subprime mortgage lender Obama has blasted during the campaign.
And then today, the Democratic candidate realeased this statement: “Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept. We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process.”
Then … of course, there’s Hillary. Let’s hope not …