My VP Shortlist

The following is my shortlist for VP. That is, if I were running for President of the United States, who would I be taking a serious look at.

First, It is important to mention that this is not necessarily who I think Clinton, or Obama, or McCain should be looking at (although all these names have been thrown around has potential VPs for Clinton and Obama), but rather who I think would best complement what I view as my strengths.

Also, I feel it necessary to mention that when speaking of my strengths, this is speaking, of course, in relative terms and I wouldn't pretend to be as informed as anyone actually in public office with the exception of perhaps the current president (how ironic).

So in no particular order...

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) - excellent military credentials and sits on foreign relations committee.

Gov. Tim Kaine (VA) - opposes capital punishment and has executive experience.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (KS)- great on public education and healthcare, opposes capital punishment, and has executive experience.

Sen. Jack Reed (RI)- member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee. Excellent military experience.

Gov. Bill Richardson (NM)- Both executive experience (governor) and foreign affairs experience (ambassador).

Gov. Janet Napolitano - great on public education and immigration and has executive experience.

As you can tell, I have nooooo executive experience and therefor governors are well represented in my short list. This assembling of potential VPs was more or less an exercise to learn more about the names being thrown around right now. But due to the premature nature of the current race and the fruitlessness of trying to predict who would pick who, I decided to look at who would be a good pick for me. Ultimately, if I had to pick one of these folks to be my main man/woman its pretty clear to me who that would be.

Gov. Bill Richardson - Excellent experience both domestically and abroad. Foreign Affairs experience out the wazzu, and the right kind of FA experience in having been an Ambassador (something we desperately need in the White House). I love Bill, and I think he would make a decent president but I am not sure he has the gut and chutzpa necessary for the national election process. And during the campaign he was running I didn't see the leadership that I think our country needs right now at the very top. But I think he is highly intelligent, uncommonly moral, and exceedingly well qualified to be Vice President.

I liked what I read about the other people on the short list, but if I feel comfortable in any areas its probably going to be education, health care, immigration, and to a lesser degree the economy. When it comes to how to manage relations between Sunni and Shia (and Kurds), I get completely lost. I have ideas about the Iraq war but I have to admit they are pretty unsophisticated. And don't even ask about Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Hamas, etc. Frankly, I don't think ANYONE knows ANYTHING about how to resolve that area of the world's problems as has been demonstrated consistently over the last 50+ years (arguably longer). But something tells me Bill would be a great Ambassador to the world and that is exactly how I would use him (which I realize is backwards for a vice president according to history's standards).

So... if YOU were running for president, who would you choose?