Tintrlvr
Junior Chimp
Posts: 5,337
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« on: January 21, 2019, 02:39:49 PM » |
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« edited: January 21, 2019, 02:48:26 PM by Tintrlvr »
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O'Rourke is a poor running mate choice, to be honest. It ought to be someone with more experience and less charisma than Harris, a "safe pair of hands". Charismatic, less experienced Pres candidate + experienced, less charismatic VP candidate has been a consistent winning combination in recent years, describing every winning Pres/VP combination from Carter/Mondale onward other than HW/Quayle, which looks like a fluke from a historical perspective. Ideally, her VP nom would also be a governor or former governor as well, since she herself has not been a governor (and gubernatorial experience generally counts considerably more than Senate experience in terms of years).
With that in mind, plausible VP choices for Harris include, in no particular order:
A couple of experienced Senators:
Sherrod Brown
Amy Klobuchar
A number of Governors/former Governors (one of whom is also a current Senator):
Tom Wolf
Steve Bullock
Ralph Northam
Tony Evers
Mark Dayton
Gretchen Whitmer
Jeanne Shaheen
John Bel Edwards
Doug Jones doesn't really fit the experience narrative but would be a decent choice regardless. Beto O'Rourke would not be a good choice - not enough experience and has the potential to outshine Harris herself, plus would be better used by the Democratic Party as a future Senate or Governor candidate in Texas.
Of these options, I think Brown is by far the most likely, since he is likely to run for President himself and do reasonably well, making him a natural person for her to ally with to close out the nomination, and he is also a strong geographic choice. The notable disadvantage of his candidacy (surrendering a Senate seat if they win) I do not think would be seen to outweigh the advantages.
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