Obama-Reed?

[pragmatic liberal]

I know his name hasn't been much mentioned, but should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, I think Sen. John "Jack" Reed of Rhode Island could be a strong pick.

His obvious weakness is that he's from a very blue state that is guaranteed to go for the Democratic nominee in November. However, he has considerable strengths.

He's a reliable liberal but he's well-liked by his colleagues and despite his low-key public profile, he is very popular among his constituents and firmly honest. He voted against the Iraq war, has several terms in the House as well as two Senate terms, is not too old (59), comes from a working-class background and has a young daughter.

More importantly, he sits on the Armed Services committee, is a graduate of West Point and was in the Army for 12 years (in which he served as paratrooper).

Obama has said he would like his VP nominee to have military or defense experience, so that would give Reed a leg up.

The other names most often mentioned for Obama are Sen. Jim Webb and Gov. Tim Kaine. Webb is superficially appealing but his personality suggests he would be a poor fit for the position of running mate. He would also HATE being vice president. Kaine might be a better choice, as he has been in politics longer and is popular, plus he has executive experience. However, he has no military or foreign policy experience.

All things considered, I think Reed would be a strong choice and could help reassure voters nationally about Obama's fitness for the job (as well as comparing nicely with John McCain).

[pragmatic liberal]

Republican Governor.

Yes, but he's up for reelection in 2008. If it looks like the Democratic ticket is likely to win, he could terminate his reelection bid and RI Democrats could pick a replacement. Given that most of the other statewide offices other than governor are held by the Democrats, it shouldn't be hard to find a good replacement candidate.

Of course, the risk for Reed is that the ticket loses and he's out of the job.

Otherwise -- though it reeks of partisan wrangling -- if the RI legislature if Dem enough, they might be able to pass a bill calling for a rapid special election, as the Massachusetts legislature did in '04 when hopes that Kerry would win raised the prospect that Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican replacement for 2 years.

[pragmatic liberal]

Reid's just plain boring.  If Obama wants to go the snore route, he may as well pick Biden, who is superior to Reed in just about every way I can think of.

Biden has a plagiarism scandal in the background and has a tendency to be a loose cannon. He also is in the pocket of the credit card industry and voted for the Iraq War.

Reed is younger, has military experience, won't embarrass the ticket, and voted against the Iraq War. He's been an extremely effective spokesperson for the Democrats on security issues. I understand not picking Reed if the other option is someone who can flip a red state (i.e Kaine, Sebelius, Wes Clark, Mike Easley, etc.). But if it comes down to a choice b/w Biden and Reed, there's no contest. Reed would be a vastly superior pick.

Here's a video of him attacking the President on FISA. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/17/late-edition-senator-jack-reed-dispels-gop-fisa-lies/

[pragmatic liberal]

Reed is a horrible choice, no one outside of RI knows who the hell he is.

I don't think Reed makes a lot of sense as VP, but again, I know I sound like a broken record on this, but high name recognition is not a qualification for VP.  You don't have to be well known before you're chosen as a running mate.  Probably 98% of Americans (outside of their respective home states) don't know who Bayh or Strickland or Webb or Pawlenty or Sanford are.  It doesn't automatically disqualify them.  There are only a tiny handful of politicians in the US who have "high national name recognition", and most of them would be awful choices for VP.

Exactly. How well known was Joe Lieberman in 2000? Or Dan Quayle (an admittedly poor choice) in 1988? Was Lloyd Bentsen known outside of political junkies? Or Richard Nixon or Spiro Agnew? I doubt most Americans even knew who Walter Mondale was. And George H.W. Bush and John Edwards and Al Gore were only well known b/c of their (failed) presidential bids.