Some veep thoughts

Let’s start by saying that a 3 AM text was in poor taste, particularly when you’re trying to win over the people you’re jabbing at (people who have to this point shown no signs of a sense of humor), though I don’t see it being a huge deal long term. Clinton will do what she needs to do at the convention, and that will do more to sway her voters than anything thus far. Moving on to the actual pick. Would Joe Biden have been my first pick? Not as such. I’m fairly left on the political scale, and I would have liked to see someone like Boxer, Kucinich, or even Lincoln Chafee (even though he was until recently a republican, and would have never been considered on any level, he’s a politician I’m rather fond of), but if we look for a moment at Barack Obama, he’s by no means a progressive. He’s slightly left of center, and his vp selection was going to reflect that. People I know seem to not like the Biden pick, but look at the rest of the short list. Bayh? He’s a fucking joke, and he makes both Obama and Biden look more left leaning by comparison. Kaine isn’t any better, though I suppose at least as a govenor he has some executive experience that would have given him a modest edge over Bayh. I think perhaps Biden was the pick all along, and the others were on the list to make the progressive base see Biden and rationalize him as the best choice (which given the options he was). He’ll be able to attack where Obama is more likely to say something entirely too thoughtful for most of the American voters. I think he’s a solid pick, not spectacular, but we weren’t going to get spectacular. Anyone who thought we were was kidding him or herself.

After months of saying so on this blog that virtually no one reads, Rachel Maddow is getting her own show. It’s dissapointing that Abrams is losing his, when we could have just as easily shifted David Gregory out of the lineup, but it seems decently likely that we’ll see Dan back on the air again at some point (perhaps once Race to the White House is no more).

The DNC is next week, and I hope to update a couple times during the week to post my thoughts, though I won’t actually be attending as far as I know now (which is dissapointing because I signed up to volunteer a good while back).

RIP Stephanie Tubbs Jones. I thought you were a bit daft, but you still were an admirably principled politician, and Washington needs more of those. Your presence will be missed on the hill.

Here’s something from Eugene Robinson, someone I’m always happy to see at MSNBC.

Andrew Sullivan poses an interesting question here.

McCain and the POW card.

And to end, here’s something from Arianna Huffington.

I’m out. Back in a few days (barring anything unexpected).