The Faculty Lounge: Is Obama Engaged In Some Heavy Vetting?
Is Obama Engaged In Some Heavy Vetting?
It's taking an awful long time for Obama to select his vice-presidential running mate. I'm sure it must be a tough choice - just when you things are going swimmingly in Iraq, Russia invades Georgia and managing a nuclear threat starts to seem like a possible campaign issue. At the same time, McCain's possible willingness to pick a pro-choicer from Pennsylvania create lots of complicated possibilities: might McCain steal a major Democratic stronghold? And might zealous pro-life Republicans in unlikely Democratic states (like Indiana, Georgia, and Mississippi) stay home if they're convinced that Obama has a military man nearby?
Still, I'd like to think we're seeing more than clock management or indecision here. If delaying the decision to Friday was a strategy, I'm dubious...unless his pick is so unappealing that the news needs to be buried in a weekend media cycle. (And boy does that not lift my spirits.) If we're seeing indecision, that hardly inspires confidence. Instead, I believe that Obama has swerved at the final minute and his team is now doing some rapid vetting of an unexpected pick. I've given up on the notion that he'll tag Chuck Hagel, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Wes Clark surfaced on our cell phones tomorrow morning. And I'd be pretty damn happy.
Political calculations like this are incredibly tough. Obama would lose 9 out of 10 elections - he is, after all, an African-American liberal. Call me crazy, but as a biographical category, white/male/war hero/POW is going to seem a lot more comforting and familiar to the average voter. But times are tough, and Obama has a chance. If he wins this one, it'll be by a hair. So while experts dismiss the Vice-President pick as having minimal impact, they're discounting the fact that an Obama victory would be by a minimal margin. It's not about California or New York...it's about a few thousand folks in Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, Indiana...and I could go on. If his selection affects 100,000 votes (a small number in a Presidential race) it could change the outcome.
Frankly, I'm not particularly impressed with the frontrunners we've heard about. I mean...Joe Biden? So I have the audacity to hope for something better. I hope they're doing some heavy vetting over at Covington and Burling.
Obama and Clark? Now there's a pair.
The Empty-Suited, Megalomaniac, Racial Arsonist AND the Perfumed Prince.
One who knows nothing about national security and one who got relieved of his command for wanting to start World War III in Kosovo.
Leave it to the Demockacrats, with their liberal and Marxist bases, to pick bad and badder.
But, then, there's always Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Then the Demockacrats would have inexperienced and inexperienceder.