General Discussion

I'm sure Biden's recommendation had something to do with his being tapped to do this.

I'd be happy with Beshear, Cooper, Whitmer, Buttigieg or Kelly. I'm only too well aware of the arguments against two women on the ticket or an openly gay man on the ticket.

My counter argument to that is that if it's Whitmer, she has an unbelievably convincing camera presence. Both a great sense of humor, and razor sharp while thinking on her feet. She would be in high demand by every TV show from Kimmel to Jon Stewart to Maher to Maddow to Fox and Frauds. And she would setal the limelight from every single host.

If it's Buttigieg, he has been on hundreds of news/interview shows during the Biden administration, and done brilliantly EVERY time. His sovereign command of issues and details, combined with his ability to dominate an argument without getting angry or flustered have made him a towering media presence. After that, it's "gay, shmay." I think that after 90 secinds into an interview, even the most anti-gay bigot is taken in by what he has to say, rather than the sexual orientation of who is saying it.

Whether Harris is willing to take either risk is another matter altogether. She does not get this election handed to her on a silver platter, free of charge or sales tax. The damage to the ticket is likely to be minimal in either case, but "minimal" can sometimes mean the difference between winning or losing a swing state. We don't need Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden to remind us of that. They would actually be my two personal top choices, but I don't live in fantasyland.

Shapiro could probably do the job, but in today's supercharged environment, I'm not sure a Jewish VP would fare better than a gay VP. The God Squad would be working overtime against us one way or the other.

Beshear or Cooper? I like both, don't know a hell of a lot about either, although successful terms as governor of a normally red state (KY more so than NC) is no small achievement these days.

I know plenty about Mark Kelly, have known him and Gabby for about 20 years now. He was perfectly happy to take a back seat when Gabby held star status in the House, and after she was shot, always got her OK to go on missions in space, after offering to scrub them all. All Gabby had to do was ask (she wouldn't hear of it).

Washington, almost 2 years ago **:


I'm happy to let Holder do his job, and for Harris to consult with the right people and make a sensible pick based on reliable information. I'm glad she is the one to have to decide and I'm not. I don't know what I'd do with five Vice-Presidents.

**One funny note about that dinner with our 3 Democratic Senator friends--outside our little room, two Republican Senators were having dinner together: Roy Blunt of Missouri and Shelley Capito-Moore of West Virginia. They popped their heads to our room to say hi to their Democratic colleagues, and then looked me and my brother over. It was written all over their faces: "Who the hell are these two movers and shakers that they are having dinner with three Democratic Senators, and we don't have the slightest idea who they are?" I don't know if they ever got up the courage to ask, and if they did, I never heard about it. My brother and I had a good laugh about it, though.