Julian Castro is on Clinton's,shortlist for VP

[henster]

Castro is not fluent in Spanish at all. What would he add to ticket beside being brown and young? A lot of  Latinos watch Univison/Telemundo its important to be able to go on those networks and communicate your message. Xavier Becerra hands down is the better choice, there's no question about it. The real question is how Julian Castro is even in consideration?

[henster]

I think Manchin would only be picked as a Hail Mary if she is trailing and only getting ~25% of white men in her polling.  However, the odds that she will need to Sista Souljah the social justice activists have gone up with this week's events at Yale and Mizzou.  We'll see. 

I also forgot to mention Booker and Patrick, both of whom could help assure continued Obama-level black support and turnout.  Booker probably dominates Patrick here because Patrick barely made it out of 2010 in a 60% Obama state and he now works for Bain Capital, which could get very awkward if Republicans run Obama's anti-Romney ads against Patrick.

Isn't Booker too Wall Street-friendly for the base?

That would be a risk.  But if she wants a black Dem who has won outside of a VRA district, she is unfortunately down to those two options.

If she's picking a black VP then I would it should be Deval Patrick, he's a great orator and has executive experience.

[henster]

Yeah, Spanish is a pretty easy language for native English speakers to master.  I don't think Castro would have too much of a problem learning it if he had to.  The bigger problem I think is the fact that he doesn't speak it already, which makes me think that he isn't very close with the predominantly Spanish-speaking recent immigrants. 

That's a pretty big red flag, since these are the voters he's supposed to be mobilizing/attracting by being on the ticket.  If the main reaction of these voters is "Julian Who?", then having him on the ticket for that reason alone probably isn't worth it.  But I think having Castro on the ticket would also generally send a message to the whole electorate (not just Hispanics) that the Democrats are diverse/tolerant/the party of tomorrow.  Hence why he was the keynote speaker at the convention three years ago.

Yes I like the idea of having a Latino VP pick but it doesn't have to be Castro. There are Latinos to choose from that are far more experienced and speak fluently in the language unlike Castro. I think especially if Rubio is the nominee a Latino running mate is essential and especially one that can speak the language fluently and go on Univison/Telemundo etc. 

[henster]

Castro is not fluent in Spanish at all. What would he add to ticket beside being brown and young? A lot of  Latinos watch Univison/Telemundo its important to be able to go on those networks and communicate your message. Xavier Becerra hands down is the better choice, there's no question about it. The real question is how Julian Castro is even in consideration?

Because the party has been grooming him for the ticket since at least 2012. Castro is young, he's photogenic, he's a good enough orator, and he's part of the fastest-growing slice of the American electorate (and, hopefully, a future bedrock of the Democratic party). It's pretty obvious why he would be in consideration.

Castro could serve as a potential counter to Rubio (as I think he'll win the nomination) or would be a "heat check" pick if the Republicans screw this up and Cruz somehow wins. He's obviously stuck in a cabinet position, so if the Clinton campaign is confident in a win in the general, why wouldn't the party want to elevate him to a position that could lead to a future presidential run? A Clinton ticket won't be lacking in experience regardless of who the Veep is.

It wouldn't be a "good" pick, but with a candidate who would be 69 at the time she would take the oath, you have to think about the bench, too.

Rubio can speak Spanish, Castro cannot that's not much of a counter. Xavier Becerra is the best counter to Rubio, his parents were undocumented migrants, he came from a very poor background, and can speak perfect Spanish. Not to mention Becerra has been in Congress since 1993, plenty of experience.