On Running Mates & Other Election Matters

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers (about the author) Page 2 of 4 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

If Hillary takes the prize:

Clinton/Edwards
Clinton/Obama
Clinton/Dodd
Clinton/Richardson
Clinton/Feingold

If Barack wins it:

Obama/Clinton
Obama/Edwards
Obama/Biden
Obama/Dodd
Obama/Richardson
Obama/Napolitano

DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENT

Let's suppose here that Clinton is the Democratic nominee. Given her ultra-high negatives -- roughly 35-40% of the population has indicated they probably could never vote for her -- it seems that her choice of vice-presidential running mate is much more important than such a choice has
been for other Dem candidates in years past. She needs someone popular, more liberal than she is, and probably a male from another area of the country. I'm assuming that neither Edwards nor Obama would accept a place on her
ticket -- although Clinton/Obama or Clinton/Edwards would make for a mighty strong pairing -- even if she were to offer it. That brings us to the Westerners Feingold and Richardson.

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico brings administrative expertise, wide experience in foreign policy, and, even though he's something of a lovable
flake, exudes a certain gravitas. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin unfortunately decided to pass on making a presidential run this year, but his dedication to the rule of law, his passionate defense of the Constitution, and his knowledge of intelligence matters would add solid weight to Clinton's ticket. (One could point to some of the same strengths in Chris Dodd, but the Connecticut senator wouldn't balance the ticket geographically -- two "Eastern liberals" and all that.)

Obama would need to balance his ticket in other ways. Again, assuming Clinton and Edwards were to turn him down, were he to offer them the veep slot, I should think he'd need someone with lots of experience, especially
in foreign affairs, which would make Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and Gov. Richardson attractive. But he might want to balance geographically and gender-wise as well, and thus Gov. Napolitano of Arizona might have a good shot. And Chris Dodd might be on his short list as well.

REFORMING THE DEBATE PROCESS

Moving on to other election issues, it seems clear that the current system of primary debates is mightily deficient and needs a thorough overhaul.

For one thing, the parties, not outside groups, should sponsor the debates, and the parties should decide the rules for inclusion (leaning toward being inclusive, not elitist) and on who should moderate the debates.

The questioners should be bona fide political reporters, not blowhard talk-show hosts; this time out, Russert and Matthews and the Fox crew were embarrassments, openly wielding their political axes to grind; their trivial
comments and "gotcha"-type questions dumbed-down the entire proceedings.

The contenders should be permitted more time for their answers, so that we get fewer sound-bites and more sense of their underlying philosophies. Roundtable discussions, where the candidates are sitting close to one another, works better in this regard than behind-the-podium stump-speech excerpts.

ADDRESSING THE REAL ISSUES

One of the reasons why we need better moderators is that, on the whole, the questioners shied away from some of the biggest issues of the day. Among them:

The overall imperial direction of American foreign policy; the ongoing occupation of Iraq and how to get U.S. troops out of there; the great damage done to the Constitution in terms of civil liberties, habeas corpus, privacy, domestic spying; the need for immediate action on global warming;
corruption and morality in government; the denigration of science; the role of the administration in keeping the economy stable and growing; the growing desire of Cheney and Bush to attack Iran; the Israeli/Palestinian conflict;
the "war on terror"; media conglomeration; our corruptible election system; impeachment; etc., etc.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

www.crisispapers.org

Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (more...)

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.