Now for Vice-President criteria!

[Sparkly]

After posting my dozen preferences for president, I started thinking about preferences for vice-president. They're somewhat different!

(I'm going to take Gore out of this one, since I don't think he'd want to be vp again.)

1. Ability to become president. This is kind of obvious; not necessarily running for prez after 8 years, but rather, the potential to take office should something happen to the president. So, I'd apply the same dozen things here, and give a point to Clark and Kerry as my top two.

2. Experience as a lawyer. Since the vp is president of the Senate, it makes sense for him/her to be a lawyer. Points to Clinton, Edwards, Kerry, Biden, and Obama.

3. Experience as a law maker, in House or Senate, for the same reasons, and for familiarity with both the players and the game. Points to Kucinich, Biden, Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, Obama.

4. Effectiveness as a pit-bull spokesperson for the president, both on the campaign trail and in the office. Points to Biden, Clark, Kucinich, perhaps Obama.

5. Ability to advise the president. The role and issues can vary, so I think this is a largely a wash, depending on who the president is.

So I guess all things being equal, my top vp picks would be Kerry, Obama, and Biden. (Well, all things are not equal, so I think there's a wider range of possibilities and variables. But at least weighted this way, my top prez pick, Clark, isn't at the top of my top vp list.)

[hippiechick]

1. You forgot Feingold ....

He meets all of your criteria. And mine :bounce:


GORE/FEINGOLD 2008!!!!

[Sparkly]

2. Ooops -- You're right!!!

Add Feingold in there!

[Xipe Totec]

3. Somebody almost exactly unlike Lieberman n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. The most important criterion of all is the ability to take over as President.

That's the main reason there is a VP. Otherwise the position, at least traditionally, has been mainly ceremonial -- the official who goes to state funerals, acts as president of the Senate (but has no other function except to break tie votes), and hangs out with the President and offers advice the President can ignore. Gore was a good example of an active, useful advisor; Cheney, the guy who's really running the show, is an anomaly.

Otherwise all the VP does is hang around, prepared to step in if the President croaks or becomes incapacitated or otherwise is unable to act.

So ideally, the VP candidate should be somebody we'd be just as happy to have as President -- because that could happen.