The media is restless. Obama has come back from his overseas trip, McCain had a (it's not cancer!) mole removed, and now they're bored. And the cable beast must be fed, so they are all a-twitter with two themes: the veep pick, and Obama is becoming an uppity negro and better watch out!
More on the second theme later. This post is about the veep.
Personally, I couldn't care less who McCain picks. There is no really good choice. From a pro-Obama perspective, I say go with Romney. His Mormonism will turn off a bunch of evangelicals, even though it will ensure McCain a Utah victory. And it would be fun to see McCain pretend to like his running mate for the next three months. His phony smile would get even phonier whenever Mitt was around. Charlie Crist would be good too. Not only would his tanned face be an interesting contrast to the pasty-white translucent McCain, but the rumors of his homosexuality would creep out and the god crowd would stay home in droves. But really, who cares?
I do care who Obama picks, not that I have any say. I read that the final three include Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, and Tim Kaine. If that's the best Obama can do in a huge field of far more exciting candidates, then I'm terribly disappointed. Of the three, I like Biden best. He is a senior statesman, smart as hell, a real fighter, and unpredictable, which makes him real. He's a good balance to Obama in terms of experience and I think he could call McCain on a lot of his BS. And he's funny. He had the best zinger ever in the millions of primary debates, saying about Giuiliani, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." I'd love to see more of that.
The pundits say Obama's primary concern is being comfortable with someone and that is why he will probably pick Kaine. Pardon me while I yawn. I watched Kaine's response to the State of the Union two years ago and was completely unimpressed. The guy is DULL. And his wife whom I have only seen once, and never heard, is unimpressive. Couldn't we get a little more excitement to go along with the most exciting presidential candidate since 1992?
Kaine's two best qualities according to the punditocracy? He speaks Spanish and he's a Catholic. These two pluses are no big deal. The Latino vote already belongs to Obama. And Biden is a Catholic too.
What happened to all the truly exciting choices, the ones who would add a little punch to the campaign and put the election away three months early? Jim Webb, Ed Rendell, Mark Warner would all be good choices. They're all fighters who know how to appeal to the working class. Maybe they're not as polished as Obama, but who needs more polish? We need fighters! And Kaine is just not my image of a fighter.
I never thought I would say this, but honestly at this point in the campaign, with the negatives being hurled at Obama by McCain, the best fighter he could choose would be Hillary Clinton. I've said before, and I know Obama thinks the biggest problem in choosing her is the lurking presence of Bill, but Obama could show just how self-assured and confident he is by choosing Hillary in spite of that.
At first I thought putting Hillary on the ticket would drive up negatives, and prompt the McCain campaign to attack Obama indirectly with attacks on Hillary, but McCain will attack with stupid nonsensical things if he has nothing of substance to attack with, so why not choose Hillary? At least if the Republicans attack Hillary she will attack back. And frankly, I think Hillary scares McCain. Hell, she scares me.
Choosing Hillary would immediately bring over some undecided voters who liked having her on the ticket but aren't yet sure of Obama. And no one campaigns better than the Clintons. If McCain had to campaign opposite Barack, Hillary and Bill, he'd need more than an exciting vice presidential nominee to win. He'd need a miracle.
Sure, McCain would attack the Clintons on their vulnerabilities, but the excitement and drama of a first black-first woman ticket, the return of the Clintons, the combined IQ's of the candidates and their spouses, would be unbeatable.
I'm sure Obama knows plenty that we don't know, and maybe there are minefields he knows about related to picking Hillary, something the GOP would use against such a ticket that is hidden from view.
But Tim Kaine? Really? Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
