As someone from MO, I don’t think that Gephardt will really help all that much. He provides no sexy boost to the ticket and is boring as all hell besides. Although, I get the impression that there’s some bad blood between Kerry and Edwards.
And I keep waiting for that Nunn-Bush ticket that I’ve been dreaming of for so long. Oh well, in my dreams mayhap.
As a Bush supporter, I was glad when the Democrats picked Kerry instead of Edwards in the first place. I think Edwards would be an effective campaigner as he is much more personable on the stump than Kerry.
If Kerry is concerned about being overshadowed by Edwards, Bayh would be a good pick.
Gephardt would be a huge, huge mistake. He’s the only candidate that I can think of that would lose Kerry votes. Right now, Kerry is drawing a lot of moderate Republicans who can’t stomach Bush, and Gephardt could potentially throw them all away. I don’t think they’d vote for Bush, but they wouldn’t vote for Kerry.
Not to mention that Gephardt has ZERO chance of being elected as President in 2012. It would be illogical to pick him and would be a good indication that Kerry won’t make good decisions. Please don’t let it be Gephardt!
I’ve never been sold on Edwards. He oozes snake oil to me. I don’t really think any amount of charm he brings to the ticket is all that necessary. Kerry is engaging in his own right, if you ignore the right wing’s attempts to paint him as wooden. He’s an accomplished athlete, he’s smart, funny, and really actually quite charming. I can’t see what else Edwards would bring to the ticket. He won’t help carry the south, he won’t do well against Cheney in a debate–he’s not willing to go negative and a debate with Cheney will require it, and the right will have a field day portraying him as a former trial lawyer. Meh.
The only person I can think of who will clean up with Cheney in a debate is General Clark, but I’m not sure he adds much more to the ticket.
I think Kerry will choose a lesser known candidate who brings something to the ticket which Kerry lacks. If it were up to me, that person would be Bill Nelson of Florida. He’s known for his “temperate nature”, he’s an Army veteran, a trained astronaut(!), he’s a fairly conservative Christian, and he could deliver Florida. He’s also on the Armed Services Committee and the Senate Comittee on Foreign Relations.
Overall, he’s fairly quiet, but has strong credentials, would be acceptable to most mainstream Dems and many moderate Republicans, and he doesn’t seem to do any damage.
This is who I hope he picks.
I agree, 100%. A moderate Republicans that plans to vote for “No. 44” (i.e., anyone but W43) would have a difficult time putting a mark next to Gephardt’s name.
This is what Democrats said about George W Bush: surely Americans wouldn’t elect a man whos only qualification was a giant silver spoon up his ass, virtually no idea about anything, and one term in a ceremonial governorship who’s only real duty was executing retarded people and complaining about bills he would later take credit for. Surely McCain would have wiped the floor with Gore: war hero, charasimatic, smart, experienced.
Edwards is a lightweight. He’s a great speaker, but he has no experience and no gravity.
Kerry is actually a pretty formidable guy. Anyone who followed the primary should know that he came from a position where people thought he was dead in the water to kick Dean’s ass solidly. His people know what they are doing. He’s got a damn solid platform. And while he can deliver bad speeches, he can also deliver powerful ones that have a lot more depth and gravitas than any of the other figures on the market. He’s a war hero with solid credentials on national security. He’s a gun owner who won’t scare away the 1/3 of union people who should be Democrats but leave the party over that one issue.
But let me say that I think WHO Kerry picks is a lot less important than WHERE he announces the pick.
Let me add that even if Edwards doesn’t get tapped, he could very well end up on the campaign trail and possibly as Kerry’s pick for Attorney General.
And if Bush starts to look like a loser in the polls, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if McCain agreed to be Kerry’s pick for Secretary of Defense or a similar position, because he knows damn well no Republican President would ever give him the nod, and he isn’t planning to run again.
He is.
I don’t think he’s personable either and I never much cared for him, but he may carry some Midwest and union-type votes along with him, so I think he has a slight edge over Edwards right now.
Apparently Kerry will announce his choice in the early part of next week.
Here’s something interesting. The AP reports that Kerry (without saying when) says that he will announce his running mate choice via e-mail to the subscribers to his website. There’s a first. Like I said, no date given, but I presume this is coming out now because the announcement will be soon.
Gephardt got thoroughly trounced in the Midwest primaries this year, making it very doubtful to me whether he could swing any states there this fall.
Also, the suggestion that Cheney would mop the floor with Edwards in a debate is completely backwards. Cheney has no charisma at all unless he’s throwing red meat to a Republican audience, whereas Edwards is very charismatic and an impassioned impropmptu speaker. Cheney would get killed in that debate.
God, please let it be Edwards. And if not Edwards, anybody but Gephardt.
Good post. You convinced me that I’m wrong about Gephardt. I withdraw my prediction.
I don’t why, but I just can’t see it being Edwards though. Maybe I’m just hesitant to go with the obvious choice.
Excellent analysis, Calliope. Here’s why Bill Nelson can be particularly useful. He doesn’t have national recognition. But, if he is announced as VP, the press will cover it like crazy. When they cover it, they will analyze and over-analyze his policies, and soundbites like “conservative”, “veteran” etc will go very well with many on-the-fence voters.
Thanks. 
Can you imagine pictures like this contrasted with pictures like this?
It makes me happy to just think about it. Alas, no one from the Kerry campaign has asked me…
Looking at it from the U.K., it doesn’t matter who he chooses, as he’ll lose. Had he been Clinton’s VP, he’d be in with a chance, but he won’t win on his own terms. Kerry = John Major. He’s Mr Grey - boring and uninteresting. Nuff said.
Unless he chooses Bill Clinton as his VP.
Mind if I tell you that people over here have a better idea of what’s going on than you do? Not because you’re British, just because you said that. We’ve seen nothing but indications that this will be a close election, like the last one.
[quote[Kerry = John Major. He’s Mr Grey - boring and uninteresting. Nuff said.[/quote]
Wasn’t John Major elected Prime Minister? 
…Which the Constitution doesn’t allow.
Doesn’t always work that way, qts. The current office-holder got in on the force of a charming personality, and look what’s happened. I suspect there’s a pretty strong hunger for a seriousminded, responsible candidate this time.
Nelson is an interesting thought, but not without his own spinnability. He got that ride on the Shuttle not because he was a “trained astronaut”, but because he was a strongly influential Congressman who pulled strings until he got it. If Kerry goes Florida, it has to be Graham.
John Major was elected on the back of Margaret Thatcher. He lost the general election when he was his own man. And I don’t mind you telling me that you’ve got a better idea; I do mind you dismissing me so. Sometimes a detached POV can provide an insight the involved cannot see.
This seems much more applicable to Gore than it does to Kerry. Clinton and Kerry have their points in common and their differences.
If you were providing a more novel insight, it would be different. “Kerry can’t win” is something all the available facts dismiss. He’s leading or even in every current poll I’ve seen.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why Wes Clark isn’t a frontrunner here. I’ve been rooting for a Kerry/Clark ticket since it became clear Kerry was the top guy.
He’s brilliant and knowledgable, he’s highly respected, he’s got the all-important “national security street cred,” he’s a soldier who doesn’t root for war the way members of the Bush administration and the Republican congress do (making it easy to position the Kerry/Clark ticket as two war heroes versus the yellow-bellied chickenhawks), he’s connected to Clinton, he’s from the South, he’s got gravitas up the yinyang, he’s a major player on the world stage already courtesy of the Milosovich hearings, and he’s not a dreaded Washington insider (for those who give a rat’s ass about that kind of thing).
Personalitywise, he’s developed into an excellent campaigner and interviewee (too late for his own presidential campaign, but that’s okay), he’s compassionate, he’s strong, he’s funny, he brings a passionate fanbase, and he’s good on his feet.
Seriously. What the hell else could you want in a VP?
He’s Southern, but his showing in the primaries probably doesn’t make anyone think he’ll bring in much of the vote from there. Apparently the thinking is that he doesn’t complement Kerry very much: they both have the veteran/war hero thing going on, and why have two of those?
I think it’s really starting to sound like he’ll name his choice tomorrow…
