Vice Presidential Candidates
With Obama now a 4-1 favorite to win the Democratic nomination (as always, see the InTrade probabilities in the left column) some are thinking ahead a bit to balancing the tickets. Geoffrey James writes about many subjects, and we especially enjoy his blog, Sales Machine.
James correctly notes that candidates are making a sale, and he makes some interesting observations about their sales mission. The choice of a Vice President is part of the product. From his sales perspective, James speculates as follows:
Obama will select somebody older (to add gravitas) and with a military background (to add “war on terror” credibility). I’m willing to bet it will be General Wesley Clark. As for McCain, he’s crazy if he doesn’t ask Condi Rice to be his running mate, since she would completely steal the “identity politics” thunder from either a Clinton or Obama candidacy.
These are quite interesting suggestions.
Posted: February 20th, 2008 under McCain, Obama, Uncategorized.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Geoffrey James
Time: February 20, 2008, 3:51 pm
Thanks for the link.
What I didn’t put in my post is the obvious… that the reason Condi would be such an effective counter to either Obaba or Clinton — beyond the fact that she’s a respected conservative voice — is that she’s darker than Obama and more feminine than Hillary Clinton.
I personally think identity politics is incredibly stupid, but since there are so many people on the loony left arguing over whether they should vote for a liberal black man versus a liberal white woman, I figure that some heads would explode if we added a conservative black woman into the mix.
By the way, I’m a democrat and an Obama supporter — and have even donated to his campaign. But I still think identity politics is beyond absurd.
Comment from Jeff
Time: February 20, 2008, 10:55 pm
Geoffrey –
You have a very interesting perspective on this question, and many will be joining you on the VP speculation. As you can tell, I read all of your work and really enjoy it.
Our work requires that we avoid any candidate allegiance, but as Illinois folks, we have watched the Obama candidacy with great interest.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Jeff
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