• As I've said before, I really think this year is not the time to pussy-foot around trying to elevate an obscure person into the limelight, so that criteria eliminates Vilsack, Sebelius and Shinseki. (And if you take Shinseki, isn't that just a complete slap in the face of Wesley Clark -- why would you want to piss-off all the good people who supported him?)



• Richardson is tainted from when he ran the Department of Energy. 'Nuff said.



• People know Jeffords' name but not who he is -- and, in any case, how many non-Democrats are going to be attracted to a Republican who turned Independent and handed the Senate to the Dems? I thought it was great, and that Jeffords' reasons were good, but to the uninitiated folks who are America's swing voters doesn't it look a lot like lack of loyalty on his part? And, as I said about the suggestion that Bill Clinton be considered, why would you want to rile up the opposition party like that, so they redouble their efforts to get out their base?



• Dick Durbin? Come on, let's be serious, please, we have an election to win.



• John Edwards. Of course, you sillies.



• John Lewis? Interesting thought. I'm going to have to mull that over.



• I can't remember where, exactly, I first saw the suggestion of John McCain for Kerry's v.p., but I thought it was pretty off-the-wall at the time. Now I'm not so sure. Such a fusion ticket might do wonders at getting across the party-line barrier, and any objections to McCain's politics (and there are many) that liberals would have can be mollified by the simple fact that vice presidents basically don't do anything. (Plus, putting him into Blair House takes a Republican Senator out of the Senate, not a bad thing in itself.) I rather doubt that McCain would do it, though.

Incidentally, Political Oddsmaker has Durbin and Vilsack at 100 to 1, Richardson at 5 to 1 and Edwards at 4 to 1. He doesn't rate any of the other candidates suggested above.

[TAP link via Follow Me Here]

Update: Some second (or third) thoughts about McCain. Just thinking about how the announcement of Kerry picking McCain might play among liberals in general, and I don't think it would go over very well. I think there's a real danger that it would alienate quite a few of them, especially the Deanites already smarting from their primary smackdown.

Would liberals really not vote for Kerry, knowing that the alternative was Bush? I really hope that wouldn't be the case, but I do come across a lot of comments on the blogs from disgruntled liberals or lefities who are already kind of pissed off about Kerry winning the nomination, and McCain could well be the back-breaking straw.

Would McCain pull in more votes than he might lose? Hard to say, but the totality of the situation means that McCain is probably not the best choice for Kerry to make. It would certainly be a bold choice, though. If he were to make it, I hope he's got a plan for keeping everyone in the fold.

Update: Via Salon's War Room, the Dallas Morning News (registration required) has their suggestions for possible vp's.

For Image, they suggest Edwards; for Passion, Dean; to get votes in the Swing States, Ed Rendell, Gephardt, Graham or Bayh; to appeal to Minorities, Richardson; for Military appeal, Clark; to get the Women's vote, Hillary; to bring a Washington Outsider onto the ticket, Vilsack; for Regional Balance, Feinstein, Vilsack, Gephardt, Edwards or Clark; to get the Southern vote, Clark, Edwards or Graham; and for pure Star power, Hillary.

And if that wasn't enough for you, they tack on a list of all the other possible candidates:

Louisiana Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, former Georgia Sens. Max Cleland and Sam Nunn, Washington Gov. Gary Locke, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and New Jersey Rep. Robert Menendez.

Also, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Georgia Rep. John Lewis, Arizona Sen. John McCain (a Republican), former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, and California Reps. Nancy Pelosi (the House minority leader) and Ellen Tauscher

Way to go, Dallas Morning News, now that's real kitchen sink reporting!

I do have one question, though -- who's Kerry's best choice for a running mate?

(Anyway where's Bill Clinton, the two Al's -- Gore and Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Carol Mosley-Braun, Eric Shinseki, Jim Jeffords, Joe Lewis, Kathleen Sebelius and Joe Lieberman on their list? And surely someone, somewhere has mentioned the Dems buying off Ralph Nader with the v.p. slot? Come on, Dallas Morning News get back on to Google and do some more world-class reporting!)

Update (3/8): Nathan Newman has a list of people who should not be considered for v.p. (Bayh is one of them.)

Update (3/9): Kos starts a Kerry v.p. cattle call. Current ranking: (1) Cleland, (2) Edwards, (3) Rockefeller, (4) Warner, (5) Vilsack, (6) Gephardt, (7) Clark, (8) Landrieu, (9) Graham, (10) Richardson. He also quotes a bit from Opinion Journal speculating about... Tom Brokaw?

Cleland would be a good sentimental choice among Democrats, of course, but I can't help but think that the GOP already knows how to get to Cleland. Rockefeller is, I think, hobbled by a name that will only serve to reinforce the perception of Kerry as a rich guy. The others I've already discussed and dismissed, except for Edwards, of course, and Warner, about whom I don't have much to say.