Who Wants to Be a Vice President?

When I married my wife, it seemed just minutes after we said “I do” before people were already asking us, “So when are you having a baby?” In the same sense, it doesn't take long after a candidate wraps up a nomination for the presidential ticket that they’re immediately asked,” Who’s going to be your vice president."

With the media and public now seemingly on board with the fact Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for president, speculation begins on who the senator will pick as his running mate.

Such a question used to be dismissed with the flick of the words, “All the vice president does is attend funerals.” Say that now after the last two men who have held the office. In divergent ways, Al Gore and Dick Cheney greatly changed the influence a vice president has on governing, and the first-in-line to the presidency can’t be taken lightly anymore.

The recipe for an ideal VP choice for Obama is a candidate who can make up for his deficiencies in experience, while helping draw people from the right of the political center and build on his strengthening Southern base. It also helps to get a running mate who attracts voters who may have supported Clinton in the primaries or have yearnings to vote for McCain.

Being as that Obama’s name was, until recent history, generally unknown to the general public, it will also be important to have a running mate with instant name recognition. A sign of a bad choice by Obama will be if the first thing out of people’s mouths is “Who?”

Doing a little brainstorming of my own, I arrived at my personal list of choices to be vice president under Obama. Take it with a grain of salt no different than if I gave you a list of my picks for the upcoming NFL season or my choice for “American Idol.” But like those contests of sport and gaining Simon Cowell’s approval, it’s certainly a lot of fun to play the VP game.

1. Chuck Hagel – How’s this for deflating any potential GOP campaign in the coming months: Have a Republican on the ticket. But beyond the politics of such a move, it will also play up what many see as appealing about Obama in his promise to bring true bipartisanship to Washington. In Hagel, you get a running mate who has appeal on both sides for standing on his principles, whether they are his stance against the Iraq war or his work in the Reagan administration. He’s also a purple-heart-wearing veteran of the Vietnam war. For those who believe the Obama ticket is about bringing the country together, there isn’t any better pick than Hagel.

2. Wesley Clark – In a time on worldwide instability – much of it was brought about by our current executive branch – and the threat of Osama bin Laden still looming, it may be key to have a running mate who stands as a pillar of not just America’s strength, but also America’s wisdom. At this point, Wesley Clark would rightfully raise his hand. For a potential commander-in-chief without military experience, Clark brings a smorgasbord of distinguished military service, including leading the military forces of a coalition of nations in a successful campaign to free Bosnia. He’s also had the wisdom to make the right call from the get go when it comes to our carrots and sticks abroad, supporting the move into Afghanistan, while denouncing the Iraq push from the get-go. At the same time, he also really seems to get it when it comes to domestic policy. As a Clinton supporter, he stands to bring some her supporters along and also has a Tony Bennett-like appeal to the youth vote. Only drawbacks would be he doesn’t bring any geographical gain to the ticked, being a Chicago native.

3. John Edwards – If it wasn’t for Obama capturing the nation’s imagination, Edwards would have been the de facto candidate of change and a return to the America as a beacon of hope to the world, rather than as an invading wall of ugliness. And with recent electoral history demonstrating that you need some Southern component on your campaign to win, Edwards brings that. Drawbacks are the right’s aversion to trial lawyers of any kind and the dreaded hair jokes the GOP will be ready to pounce upon.

4. Loretta Sanchez – My pick for best VP candidate no one is mentioning. I’m not a stereotypical demographics person, but Sanchez would be a great choice for those seeing Obama as needing to get back Clinton’s female and Latino vote. Beyond that, Sanchez shares a couple of traits with Obama, including standing against corruption and politics as usual (which got her kicked out of the Congressional Latino Caucus when she wouldn’t support a Joe Baca handout) and being against the Iraq war from the beginning. She’s also demonstrated an ability to defeat a top GOP candidate in Robert Dorman – in Orange County no less. Her fiscal conservatism makes her likable by conservatives. My only reason for not making her my top pick would be the higher profile for Hagel, Clark and Edwards.

5. Al Gore – After we left the theatres or turned off the DVD after watching “An Inconvenient Truth” two years ago, we yearned for Al Gore to announce he was running for president. It didn’t happen, any we’ve moved on. That said, there’s noting in the Constitution about having more than two terms as vice president and if Obama was already a candidate that had a cult following, you might as well break out the Kool-Aid if Gore joined the ticket. Of course, there are also those on the far right who pander against Gore because they live in a fantasy where there isn’t global warming and the universe is just 5,000 years old. But as Bush’s time passes, so will theirs. There also may be the sense among the public that Gore’s time as a politician has passed no matter how much they respect him. I’m starting to believe Gore when he says his cause to end global warming is better served being Joe Q. Public, rather than the Honorable Al Gore.

6. Max Cleland – We call your war hero with ours. Hard not to like Cleland, who would appeal to both the veterans and the seniors, and it would certainly be poetic justice for the person Karl Rove unjustly put down to end up in the White House.

7. Joe Biden – Was my third choice behind Obama and Edwards and I have a great respect for him as a politician and a mind, though I’m not sure he would bring that many extra votes to the ticket.

8. Barbara Boxer – I’m a big Barbara Boxer fan going back to when I met her when she was first running for U.S. Senate. No question she is as strong a legislator as they come, and can certainly be the alternative not-Clinton woman for the ticket for those that care about gender. Her big drawback is the GOP love to vilify strong female candidates from the Bay Area that may make her more polarizing than Obama needs.

9. Anthony Zinni – An alternative to Clark if he doesn’t take the job. Problem lies in that most of the general public has no idea who Zinni is. But the decorated general was one of the first during the Bush administration to be blacklisted for not following the program and marching off to Iraq. Military and foreign policy credentials are there, though we don't know yet if he can be the wunderkind on domestic policy like Clark has been.

10. Caroline Kennedy -- Makes the comparison to JFK even more apparent, but while she has a great deal of respect from the public for her charitable work and other philanthropy activity, her political resume is as blank as a sheet listing President Bush’s pullout strategy from Iraq. She would serve Obama better as an apolitical endorser than being on the ticket.

11. Oprah Winfrey – Don’t laugh…. One of the reasons Oprah has earned billions is people really, really like her and Winfrey’s by far the person most recognizable to the public on this list. Problem lies in her never having served any kind of public position and if you think lack of experience becomes a talking point against Obama, watch out. Obama/Oprah is a great fantasy and not entirely out of the realm of possibility, but this is reality folks. That said, I think I’d like it even if the political pundits sour on it and what was Schwarzenegger’s experience before he became the governator?

12. Christopher Dodd – Like Biden, doesn’t add any more electability.

13. Ted Kennedy – Also makes the comparison to JFK while also eliminating experience as a worry, but he’s as polarizing as Clinton to the right who just might see him as the anti-Cheney (is that such a bad thing?). That said, there’s no disputing his experience and if people get past the Sean Hannity rhetoric and the fat jokes, they may just see a candidate they can admire.

99999999999999. Hillary Clinton – On one end, you can just about applaud Clinton for the tough campaign she ran against Obama as toughening him up for the general campaign. The Wright/Ayers controversies and any of the flag lapel questions will have run their course before the GOP even has a chance to swift boat him. At the same time, while you respect your opponent for making you a better player, you don’t get in bed with them. Clinton shouldn’t be rewarded for nearly tearing the Democrats apart.

Wishful Thinking. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger crossed my mind, especially with his wife’s vocal support for Obama and is vast appeal with both sides of the aisle, but the Constitution implicitly states that a person ineligible to be president can be vice president (which is why Bill couldn’t have been a running mate for Hillary).

That said, no reason Schwarzenegger couldn’t be in his cabinet … or at least allow Obama to join with him for his inevitable cameo in the new “Terminator” film.