Selecting from Congress or Governors' mansions. We need them where they are, someone from the Cabinet would be fine.

He polled very strongly there.
A message about class could play well in a red area, especially a poor one.

Never Joe Manchin!

It’s time to move forward. Not tread water.

Often dems winning in red states are more populist than liberal.

They are tuned in to local issues, unions, healthcare, jobs, schools, homeowners and renters rights, consumer rights, kitchen table issues.

Manchin started out that way, then sold out to the mine owners over the miners. The bankers over the borrowers. The big money lobbyists corrupted him. Until recently, he was actually a reliable vote when it mattered. The last decade though, he really fell down the well.

Plus he's anti-abortion.

i don't care-just WIN!

*Gore Vidal's "The Best Man"

Heck, you can even double dip that ice cream cone!

But, to be perfectly honest - VP's positions really don't count for that much.
Very, very few ballots are cast on the basis of the 'running mate' when it comes right down to it.

JD Vance and Sarah Palin might be the exception- but only for the reason that they were so 'WTF' bad. And thereby cause people to go, "These people .. WEIRD!"
But mostly - it's a real ho-hum deal for most voters.

don't weigh the VP slot in even the slightest measure.

And as this race so clearly illustrates - the person at the HEAD of the ticket - is where all the juice (and about 98% of the consequences) are. Voters are right in that respect - if, so often, in very little else ...

I'd hope that it is not a Joe Lieberman type.
It may not have an effect on this election outcome, but it could have a huge outcome on the direction of our country, and our party, in the future.

On the other hand, you and I represent a very specific breed - in that we take our politics very seriously - and also very attentively. That is not the average (or even the majority voter) however. (much to our dismay)

And as ample illustration of the above - the American voter gave us the 'reality TV star' for four (and very, very nearly eight) years! Sound like a serious evaluation in any sense to you? You and I might be looking at what lies ahead (with some luck!) for our country. But it seems to me the remainder of of the country is more or less content with The Voice - and what free agents their preferred NFL team might pick up in the off season.

( after all - Trump vs Biden appeared to be a really, really tough choice for them ... Groan! )

and with that - I'll bid you a good evening ...

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