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And then there was one: with the last serious contender having finally bowed to the inevitable, the way is clear for eight uninterrupted months of Media speculation as to what brand of antifreeze they use for blood on John Kerry's home planet of NewEnglandLiberalatron. Can the remaining states attract any voters' attention to the fact that there are still races to be decided beyond the primary hoopla, or will Senatorial candidates be reduced to hanging about on street corners giving their "Me legislate you long time, ten dollah" pitches? Not looking forward to the remaining two weeks of the Illinois campaign, no...
So who might John Kerry select to be his off-site backup file? The Media consensus is that it's already a done deal in favor of John Edwards, which I think unlikely in view of the fact that Edwards consistently came in a pretty dismal second throughout the primaries completed to date, suggesting that his alleged appeal as a running-mate who would compensate for Kerry's supposed deficiencies is lackluster at best. Similarly, although the name of Florida senator and one-time contender Bob Graham occasionally gets tossed about, with Florida basically his only dowry I fail to see what would be gained by that choice. And as to the notion of picking Gephardt to draw in the Missouri vote, come on. (Although Gephardt as Secretary of Labor might not be a bad notion.)
Bill Richardson, Hispanic-descended governor of Arizona-or-was-it-New-Mexico, sounds more promising on the face of it: bring in the rural West and shore up the faltering Latino commitment to the Democratic party (a demographic prize who are being much courted by the other side with the appeal that "hey, our top guy doesn't exactly speak English either!"). I'd look to Richardson as a stronger contender than Graham, certainly, and possibly even than Edwards.
As to other nontraditional candidates (IE Not Old White Guys), Dianne Feinstein of California has been mentioned a time or two, but the prospect that's really got the Right salivating is New York's junior Senator, one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bad news, guys: she's not that dumb. Ought-Eight, maybe, when time has provided more perspective on the conservative hatchet-job she and her husband have suffered with, but I'd say 2012 would be more realistic.
One does wonder what the chances of seeing a true wild-card from outside the conventional political arena would be for this cycle. Perot drew some 12% of the electorate in '92 running as a sensible businessman under circumstances of similar economic distress; might we see the Democrats attempting to capitalize on such disaffections this time around by turning to a Number Two who could be positioned as the man -- or woman -- to smack some economic sense into our disarrayed policies?
Whoops, Mum's home, Jane Austen must tidy away her papers so there's room to cook dinner...
{Later: OK, looked it up, Richardson is the governor of New Mexico; the confusion arose because the governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, is also being bandied about as a nontraditional choice. Cool.}
So who might John Kerry select to be his off-site backup file? The Media consensus is that it's already a done deal in favor of John Edwards, which I think unlikely in view of the fact that Edwards consistently came in a pretty dismal second throughout the primaries completed to date, suggesting that his alleged appeal as a running-mate who would compensate for Kerry's supposed deficiencies is lackluster at best. Similarly, although the name of Florida senator and one-time contender Bob Graham occasionally gets tossed about, with Florida basically his only dowry I fail to see what would be gained by that choice. And as to the notion of picking Gephardt to draw in the Missouri vote, come on. (Although Gephardt as Secretary of Labor might not be a bad notion.)
Bill Richardson, Hispanic-descended governor of Arizona-or-was-it-New-Mexico, sounds more promising on the face of it: bring in the rural West and shore up the faltering Latino commitment to the Democratic party (a demographic prize who are being much courted by the other side with the appeal that "hey, our top guy doesn't exactly speak English either!"). I'd look to Richardson as a stronger contender than Graham, certainly, and possibly even than Edwards.
As to other nontraditional candidates (IE Not Old White Guys), Dianne Feinstein of California has been mentioned a time or two, but the prospect that's really got the Right salivating is New York's junior Senator, one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bad news, guys: she's not that dumb. Ought-Eight, maybe, when time has provided more perspective on the conservative hatchet-job she and her husband have suffered with, but I'd say 2012 would be more realistic.
One does wonder what the chances of seeing a true wild-card from outside the conventional political arena would be for this cycle. Perot drew some 12% of the electorate in '92 running as a sensible businessman under circumstances of similar economic distress; might we see the Democrats attempting to capitalize on such disaffections this time around by turning to a Number Two who could be positioned as the man -- or woman -- to smack some economic sense into our disarrayed policies?
Whoops, Mum's home, Jane Austen must tidy away her papers so there's room to cook dinner...
{Later: OK, looked it up, Richardson is the governor of New Mexico; the confusion arose because the governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, is also being bandied about as a nontraditional choice. Cool.}
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