The Veepstakes

God, how I hate that word. Veepstakes. Who thought that was a bright idea? Do you think that Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Kaine or Jack Reed are sitting at home waiting for Ed McMahon to show up at their door with their veepstakes tickets to the White House?

Anyway, with all the hoopla on a possible VP pick for Senator Obama, all we've gotten from the media is that Hillary Clinton is probably off the short list. No shit. These people get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to analyze this crap and I could've given you that tidbit of wisdom even before the primaries were over.

Then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was in the mix, and perhaps still is, but it seems to me that when you're getting major exposure on being a possible pick, it ain't you anymore. Another name mentioned since Day One has been Kathleen Sebelius but what worries me, and perhaps I'm reading too much into this, is all the nutty Clinton supporters (not ALL Clinton supporters, just the nutty ones) who would take a Sibelius pick as a slap in the face in lieu of Hillary. Too many times I've heard "if it's a woman other than Hillary, I'm voting McCain." See the logic in that? That's why I call it nutty. Their numbers don't worry me, but the possibility of the McCainstream Media pounding the "Hillary was dissed" meme at the expense of covering substantive issues does.

Months ago I was speaking with Armadillo Joe and we were tossing around names as well. Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Jim Webb... and then we came across Wesley Clark.

I think Clark would compliment Barack Obama well. You can't dismiss his military service, he knows his foreign policy, and hell, he was Supreme Fucking Allied Commander Europe of NATO during the Clinton years. That's a helluva lot more experience than "getting shot down in a fighter plane."

I wouldn't object to Clark as a VP candidate even though he was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries and has since publicly endorsed Sebelius as the next VP choice. But I prefer Clark. He has the gravitas you want in a running mate and people know him. His comments on "Face The Nation" will probably resurface for a time and then fade as fast as the attention span of most voters. Also, because of those comments, picking Clark might be seen as a "fuck you" to the GOP and the McCain campaign, and we can always use more of those.

Here's Digby's take:

...Obama's going to need people like Clark close by to help him manage the military, which is going to be hostile to his leadership. The Man Called Petraeus is gearing up for his run in 2012 and they already injected themselves into the campaign by sandbagging Obama with that visit to the wounded troops flap. It's not going to be easy.

So what do you think? Obama/Clark '08? It sounds really good to me.

(H/T Bob Cesca)