Amy Klobuchar has been in the Senate long enough to know the ins and outs of relations with Congress, which would be especially helpful if it were with a Senate with Elizabeth Warren as majority leader.
She is smart, is not a grandstanding tooter of her own horn, and, as you pointed out, has a LONG time in the Senate, with the accompanying experience in fields such as foreign policy, ecology, and economic policy. That sets her apart from relative newbies such as Warren and Harris, neither of whom I like for the job anyway. I do discount having run a presidential campaign as a marketable asset. Anyone with enough money and a little charisma can do that.
A "yeah, she seems just fine" candidate with big smarts and the sly modesty not to shove them in people's faces when the situation does not warrant it is an asset, too.
My ideal VP pick would have been the same as my first presidential pick, namely Jay Inslee of Washington State, but since Joe Biden has stated categorically that he would pick a woman as his VP, then the credentials of the women available are what we need to scrutinize.
Warren is out for me for a number of reasons, but an obvious one is that I don't want that 180 day window (or however long it is) of time when her Senate replacement would be a Republican, possibly being the difference in letting Moscow Mitch--if he survives the election--continue on as Senate Majority Leader at a time when we need to start damage control on day 1.
Harris, with her famous zeal as a prosecutor for getting convictions with less than thorough regard for whether or not there was sufficient evidence to justify a conviction, bothers me a lot. Let her have AG and turn her loose on the Trumpanzees. I have other issues with her as well, but none so detrimental as the weakness of being able to be portrayed as someone who went for unjustified convictions of the possibly innocent. Our base doesn't need to hear that about someone on our ticket, especially if the Republicans get to "expose" it first, and we have to do damage control afterward. A presidential campaign that needs to do major damage control on part of its ticket is already ⅔ of the way to losing.
There are others with less of a public profile. Their major weakness is, well, lack of a profile. If Biden makes his pick early, they have time to build one up--and the Republicans have more time to tear it down, so there is no margin for error. That's a job for the vetting committee.
Klobuchar is white--some people won't like that. She is not known as far left--some people won't like that. She has not taken any notably far left positions on anything that would satisfy strong supporters of Sanders and Warren--supporters of Sanders and Warren won't like that, either.
For Klobuchar, as with anyone else under consideration, it will all come down to which of the pro factors, when added up, outweigh the con factors--if indeed they ever do. First, the vetting committee needs to do its job, and then Biden's inner circle needs to do its job. Not just the ideologues, but the number crunchers, too. Guys like David Simas, who behind the scenes did so brilliantly to put Barack Obama in office.
It won't be our rants that constitute the deciding factor, I'll let you all in on that one right now.
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