You don’t get to be a prominent astronaut and a high ranking naval officer without getting lots of experience talking to large groups. He doesn’t have the same level of charisma as Obama, Reagan or Clinton but he speaks just fine. Much better than the weirdo on the other ticket.
the space station does a lot of school interaction. he has experience with all age groups and able to talk super technical and regular person.
I’ve always thought Trump’s secret weapon was his ability to communicate at a 4th grade level (which, unfortunately, is the sweet spot for half of the American electorate). But a Democrat doing that might come off as condescending as my parenthetical.
I don’t believe Mark Kelly was on ISS. He flew four shuttle missions. His twin brother Scott Kelly was on ISS and there are a bunch of videos on the youtube of Scott doing various public relations stuff on the station.
Yes Scott has over 500 days in space. Mark has 54 days.
Yeah, that weird twin test.
I personally think Tim Walz (60), the governor of MN would be a good choice. He’s affable, experienced and looks like Santa. Newsom would be a bad choice, as two Californians on the ticket would put some people off. I’m okay with Kelley. Two women is a bad idea at this point, as is two people of color, IMO. No to Sanders; people don’t want another antique.
I voted Shapiro.
I’d hate to lose Kelly as my state’s senator. For dog’s sake, we’ve had non-stop senatorial races since I got to Arizona (2016 McCain; 2018 Sinema; 2020 special election Kelly; 2022 Kelly; 2024 hopefully Gallego over “Trump in heels” Kari Lake). Can we please have 2026 off?
Seriously, Pennsylvania is a must-win and Arizona is a bit of insurance against something going pear-shaped in the Midwest.
On the other hand, Kelly might drive D turnout in AZ which helps Gallego and the abortion ballot initiative. If Harris can get close to an Obama-level of black voter support and turnout Pensylvania should be solidly blue.
Which one ended up being the weird one?
Fell into the twin trap!
Technically, probably Scott, as he was the experimental cell (up on the ISS), while Mark was the control cell (back on Earth).
Any ticket whose astronaut has less than two full months of space time loses my vote. That’s where I draw the line.
Having standards is important.
So Kelly is by far the favorite on the SDMB with over half of the 150 votes.
One wonders whether anyone in her campaign inner circle reads the Dope.
Probably no such luck.
You’re probably right, but it would not surprise me if someone (or more than one) staffer is tasked with monitoring social media and left-leaning message boards to gauge grassroots rumblings about the pick.
Bet you didn’t think Neil deGrasse Tyson read here, either. 
That’s true.
It would surprise me if they even knew about message boards unless you count reddit. They’re looking at Instagram and tik tok. They aren’t looking at a place with a few hundred active users in an uninteresting demographic. Not a chance.
I like Walz. He has his finger on the pulse of the average Democrat. IMHO