I’d prefer he choose a female and that she be a bit younger than he is.
But I’m open to other suggestions.
Would Senator Kirsten Gillibrand be someone to look at? I don’t know a lot about her, but the little I’ve seen of her, she appears quite smart and very tactful.
If Sanders was the nominee I don’t believe he could get anyone who wanted a political future on the ticket with him, for the same reason Goldwater and McGovern couldn’t get good VP candidates. No one wants to be associated with a losing ticket.
So Sanders would probably get someone like Raul Grijalva.
There’s Elizabeth Warren. She’s a progressive who some people have mentioned as a possible candidate. So she’d be an ideological fit with Sanders and would have the stature. It would benefit her because even if the Sanders-Warren ticket lost, running for Vice President would make her a stronger contender for a future presidential run.
Hillary Clinton. I mean that. She’d be a great choice. She bring established, er, establishment credentials. Honestly, they’d be perfect together in either capacity. Pelosi would be good, too.
Balance on the ticket is probably overrated in most ways, but not here. The vice president’s primary job is literally just to survive if the President dies, and for an elderly president, that’s especially relevant. A young president like G. W. Bush can afford an old, experienced VP like Cheney, because it was less likely that he would die in office, and so Cheney’s value as an advisor was more relevant. For an old president, though, the calculation is different.
Bernie Sanders/Brian Schweitzer 2016-The Only BS Is In Our Initials
In all seriousness, Schweitzer or Jim Webb would make a great running-mate: like Sanders, Schweitzer and Webb are anti-Establishment Democrats and also plays to Sanders’s declared intentions of pursuing a fifty-state strategy and appealing to the white working-class.
Sanders could get Webb but I don’t know that he’d want him. Sanders is already having problems winning over minority voters. Choosing Webb doubles down on winning white voters.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey might complement Bernie Sanders. Young, competent former mayor of Newark NJ works well with leftie groups and investment bankers. He’s only been in the Senate since 2013 though. Kirsten Gillibrand is probably a better choice.