When it comes to picking a running mate, there's two schools of thought; pick someone different or pick someone similar. In other words, pick someone who is strong in whatever the candidate is weakest or someone who reinforces the candidate's strengths.
Of course, a good VP pick will do both, and more. Such as, win at least one state that you'd otherwise lose, match up favorably in VP debates, have no skeletons in the closet... Oh yeah, and somewhere down on the list is whether or not they'd make a good president.
I'm of the school of thought that you should pick someone similar. It helps give your campaign one consistant message. Having a clear story line, or narrative seems to be the most important thing in modern presidential elections. Marketing execs figured out a while ago that humans naturally tend toward narrative. It would be wonderful if every American could look at a list of Obama and McCain's positions and decide with whom they sided and vote accordingly, but people don't like to process data. It takes time and energy, and it's hard to remember. Instead we like to make stories.
So, in this election we have the story lines of McCain as the experienced vetran with the strength to navigate the dangerous war and Obama as an inspriational force, transcending old politics to heal a wounded nation and navigate a damaging war. It would be wise for both candidates to pick running mates that don't go against these story lines.
Obama should not pick Jim Webb, Sam Nunn or Hillary Clinton. He should pick Bill Richardson or Colin Powell.
McCain, I'd like to see pick Pat Buchanan.
pohs
the article on Bill Richardson is particularly convincing.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
VP picks... Similar or Different?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This is not rocket science.
Palin as McCain's Veep.
Did you see that Carville has suggested Gore for VP? I don't imagine he would want it, but it's a pretty cool idea.
I sorta like Sebelius, too. And the murmurings about Kerry are not making me as upset as I would have expected. Personally, I go for the theory that the only thing a VP pick can do is hurt you...no one will vote for you because of the person who plays second fiddle to you, but if they don't like that person, they might NOT vote for you. So while I agree that getting someone who can tell your story (and I LOVE the story, both in theory and in Obama's practice) is important, I think the most important thing is to not court controversy.
I think people totally do vote for the VP, especially if you pick someone with a strong following. I'm not saying someone's going switch parties and vote for a president they don't like just for the VP, but swing voters, and people who might not otherwise vote, might be energized by a running mate they really like.
Al Gore would energize people. I'd be excited for him, but I'd advise him not to do it. He only became exciting after he left politics and returning might undermine his credibility as an un-biased advocate for global warming. Still, global warming has become so main stream (thanks to Gore) that he could be the VP again, and still advocate for global warming without much (public) opposition from the right.
Sarah Palin, the young female governor of alaska... I hadn't heard that, but she'd be the epitomy of selecting someone "different" and actually, for McCain, selecting someone different isn't a bad idea, because, frankly, his story isn't very compelling. I think he used to be compelling as recently as a few years ago as an independant thinker well respected on both sides of the aisle.
Sebelius, female governor of Kansas, I hadn't heard of her excpet for seeing her state of the union rebuttal this year. I recall thinking she had a nice relaxed feeling to her, or at least that she was trying to... Don't know much about her, but she'd fit the mold of "minority politics of the future."
I don't know what Kerry would add to the ticket. Serious democrats respect him, but beyond that he's a bit over exposed.
This is fun trying to guess. What's the most fun VP idea you can think of?
How about Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Gorbachev, Chris Tucker, Commander Adama from Battle Star Gallactica (Edward James Olmos)...
I assumed Ted meant Michael Palin, and I thought to myself: Capital-G-Genius.
I'm willing to grant that Hillary Clinton might bring some into the fold on the VP ticket (albeit fewer than she would de-fold in the process). But beyond that special circumstance, I really don't think the VP matters...if they're doing their job, they should just be another mouth for the same story the main candidate is telling. I agree that they should fill obvious gaps that the candidate has, although it's not clear to me that, recently, Quayle or Gore did that. Cheney, obviously, is a drum full of presidential Spackle made to look slightly like a man.
Post a Comment