Comment Editor and columnist/blogger of The Times, Daniel Finkelstein is a smart and observant fellow. But there's something about UK journos who write on US politics. They inevitably believe they know more, and better. Witness his picks for Obama's VP shortlist:
1. Hillary Clinton: "If Obama loses, she may see a 2012 race opening up before her."
It doesn't matter. She will be trying to prise open the presidential nomination until she gets it or dies. And that's one of a number of reasons she'd be the worst choice on record. As Al Sharpton said of the Rudy Giuliani VP boomlet in 04, whoever picks that man better have a food taster in the White House.
2. Al Gore: "He's certainly got the experience. But the eco-warrior probably has no desire to return to Pennsylvania Avenue. Winning his endorsement would have set Obama up for the nomination. Does he need Gore any more?"
So why list him at all? He's got the best of all worlds: the martyr saint of 2000, and almost as rich as The Clintons. Besides, he's been a candidate for president or vice president four times in the last twenty years. That doesn't spell 'change.'
3. John Edwards: "A serious contender. The North Carolina Senator ran with John Kerry in 2004 and would bring the Southern link currently missing in Obama's campaign. But would he want to do it again? And would Obama feel Edwards should have been with him earlier?"
If you can't get a date for the presidential ball, there's always everyone's favorite also-ran, John Edwards. One vacuous Senate term, two failed presidential runs and one failed VP nomination in four years. On the other hand, he'd get an asterisk: the third man to be nominated for vice president with two different running mates.
4. Kathleen Sibelius: Or, as most of the country will say of the two-term Kansas governor: who? Widely ticked for muffing her state of the union response this year. More likely to run for Sam Brownback's open seat in 2010.
5. Bill Richardson: Brilliant resume and a mediocre campaign gaff-o-rama. Another sharp poke in the eye to The Clinton machine.
6. Wesley Clark: "A former four-star general, Wes Clark served in Kosovo and studied PPE at Oxford. He would lend Obama military clout and cross party-lines in his appeal."
Clark unofficially got retired for his Kosovo escapades. It'd be too easy to conflate his record with the she-Clinton's sniper fire adventures for comic effect. Generals always seem like good candidates but rarely make good presidents. Remember President Douglas MacArthur?
7. Senator Jim Webb: "The junior Virginia senator since 2006. He could provide the machismo that Obama needs. A military man with a son in Iraq, he's regarded as one of the most authoritative Democratic voices on the conflict. Known to carry a loaded pistol on occasion. As a former Reagan man he would add to Obama's cross party appeal and make it slightly harder to paint the candidate as an unrepentant liberal."
Webb would make Obama seem- what, a repentant one? A senator with four years in office and a running mate with a year and a half who won his seat because the incumbent stupided himself out of the race. Not much of a team player in his Navy Secretary days; when he resigned, after a year, Ronald Reagan wrote in his diary, "I don't think Navy was sorry to see him go." Working on his third marriage, too.
8. Senator Robert Casey: "The Pennsylvania senator has already endorsed Obama. As VP, he would help out in the white working-class states. And his Catholic faith would reach out to an important voting bloc."
Casey ran for office five times in nine years, winning three. Got thumped for governor by Ed Rendell. Won his Senate seat in no small measure because his opponent, Rick Santorum, was so unpopular. Only two years older than Obama. His anti-abortion views will hardly play any better with the party than they did with his dad, who was barred from speaking at a Democratic national convention because of them.
9. Oprah Winfrey. Oh, please. Besides, the Constitution prohibits both members of a presidential ticket coming from the same state.
10. Joe Biden. Oh, please, again.
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