That's ridiculous lol. I don't know if I've ever heard someone say they should pick a Hispanic politician because they need someone white
I think it's very telling and disturbing that the conversation about VP choices revolves so much around gender, race and geography. But, that's how it is, I guess. While I agree that a VP is not going to save Clinton, I think a VP choice can further hurt Clinton. A woman or racial minority can increase conservative distaste for the ticket in some quarters and incrementally increase turnout for the opponent. Even for possible Clinton voters, white men might have an incrementally harder time identifying with the ticket. The gains you could get from minority voters aren't worth the risk to the white vote, in my thoroughly unqualified opinion. I think she's best served by a white male establishment figure. The other dynamic she has to consider though is that she can't have a VP candidate project more presence or power than she does. Men with strong physical presence could upstage her. Even things like height can be pitfalls. She may have to be careful about stupid things like how often and how they share a stage. For this reason, she might want someone not too tall (but tall enough), someone young, someone not too eloquent (but eloquent enough) and maybe (despite what I said earlier) a minority.
That is the focus of this thread but that doesn't mean the choice revolves around it. It is just what I am interested in because for me that is the pure strategy portion of the campaigns.
Bernie will not pick Booker an example of an opportunistic corporate black politician. Hillary would be quite at home with him to make her Wall Street backers secure that he would take care of them if something happened to her.
I like Booker but I think whoever the nominee is should consider Kasich to sinch Ohio and foreclose on all moderates and independents. Let the wingnuts stew in wingnuttia.
Clinton has a slight advantage here, I think. She basically needs to bring in the union people, youth, and educated white males, and there are many in the Democratic Party that would fit, many already mentioned. She'll go with something safe and predictable -- one of the Castro brothers wouldn't be that crazy. For Bernie to shore up his weaknesses, he needs someone a few decades younger, a minority, a pragmatic establishment moderate, and someone identified with foreign policy bona-fides rather than domestic policy, with a bonus if they are retired military. That's basically Colin Powell about 20 years ago and no one I can think of active in politics today.
That actually sounds pretty smart if Kasich would be willing. The Republican Party would disown him, though they already think he's a communist anyway.
Kasich won't do it. He's a true establishment Republican and is a likely top choice to be a VP pick of whoever gets the Republican nomination. But even if he doesn't get that nod, he has a future with the party. He could get some nice financial gigs and then run for Senate in Ohio against Brown in a few years, if a Republican wins he could get a cabinet post easily or he could become a paid analyst and sit on some cushy boards setup by Republican bigwigs. He won't burn the party.
I imagine it will be Castro. I assumed he was being groomed for this oppurtunity ever since he went to Washington. Get the Hispanic vote.... Although the republicans are already doing everything in their power to give away that vote anyways.
Castro is too short and nerdy. Sorry to be abrupt but you need someone who can step and kill people if needed. Presidentin' is serious. I'd figure O'Malley. Some General would be good.
Deval Patrick would have been perfect IMO. Doesn't have the foreign policy chops, but he's a two-time governor and a former civil rights lawyer with rock-solid records on gun control and women's reproductive rights. And while not the moderate you describe, the fact that he left politics for Bain Capital might have assuaged some of Wall Street's fears.
