Well, I pretty much 100% want Booker for VP now.

[auntpurl]

Cons:

1. He's a Dem Senator from a state with a Repub governor
2. He's from NJ, which doesn't help us

Pros:
1. I LOVE HIM

Ok, I know that's not the most reasoned argument, but...I LOVE HIM. He STOOD IN SOLIDARITY with Murphy during the filibuster. He gave a wonderful, fiery, impassioned speech.

I know, I know, we can't have two East Coasters. We can't take a Dem Senate seat away. I know it's not gonna happen.

BUT I LOVE HIM.

[Proud Public Servant]

1. He was great on this...but...

He's got a record of Wall Street support that rivals Chuck Schumer's. He'd be a tough sell to the Warren wing.

[B Calm]

2. Cory Booker's position on trade could help define him

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/politics/new-jersey/2015/05/18/cory-booker-trade/27551585/

[Eric J in MN]

4. Booker voted against Fast Track. NT

NT

[B Calm]

7. and that's a plus in my opinion! Took balls to go against Obama!

[NurseJackie]

5. He's been tops on my wish list since the beginning ...

...But he seldom is mentioned by pundits or analysts.

[auntpurl]

10. I've seen him mentioned some.

He's definitely on the "short list" of many analyses, but they don't discuss him much. I think he's very impressive!

[brooklynite]

6. Christie doesn't get to pick replacement...

If you recall, he came in when Lautenberg died. NJ goes straight to a special election.

[auntpurl]

8. Oh, right! That's good news.

Still doesn't solve the problem of two East-coasters, but I'm not sure that's as important anymore.

[Hortensis]

9. Booker's a victim of far-left insistence on "purity."

They've been doing their best to take down a lot of good left-wing leaders with their typical extreme hostility to anyone who isn't with them completely.

A social scientist pointed out in layman's talk that while the far right hates everyone else, the far left hates itself. Nothing demonstrates the latter more clearly than the jobs far-left extremists do on left-wing leaders in office, whose real-life records inevitably stoke purist ire and attack. Like Cory Booker and Julian Castro.

That said, for some odd reason I just love the idea of Hillary and Elizabeth Warren working together as a team to make things happen. No idea why the far left hasn't turned Warren into an object of their loathing yet, but wait for it...

[auntpurl]

11. I like Warren

but I would really like to have an AA or Latino on the ticket. I think it's really important and not just for "optics".

Your point about the far-left and their purity tests is right on.

[Hortensis]

13. Hispanics are, of course, a very large

and underrepresented "minority." They're mostly coming through for us, they're due, and they're feeling it.

Won't quarrel for sure, although all the very same things could be said for women. Male presidents with male VPs are the norm. If we elect our first female president now, how many decades will pass before we have our first pair of women at the top? This could be a chance for a two-fer. Any Hispanic women on the list?

[Trust Buster]

12. Booker is too self promoting. Like Harold Ford and Tulsi Gabbard. He's not genuine.

[auntpurl]

14. Maybe. I like the fact that he's confident.

What makes you say he's self-promoting? Honestly asking.

[Trust Buster]

17. Like Gabbard and Ford, he has attacked Democrats, including the President, for his own political

gain. Democrats in Washington do not trust the guy. He's a non-starter from a V.P. perspective.

[auntpurl]

29. Interesting. Thanks.

[BobbyDrake]

15. His constituents, myself included, would disagree with you. nt

[w4rma]

16. Booker is "a new Democrat" who defended Bain Capital and is described as a neoliberal.

Booker has been described by many as a liberal, a moderate, and a neoliberal. In a July 2013 Salon interview, Booker said that "there's nothing in that realm of progressive politics where you won't find me." However, in a September 2013 interview with The Grio, when asked if he considered himself a progressive, he avoided the term, saying he is a Democrat and an American. George Norcross III described Booker as "a new Democrat — a Democrat that's fiscally conservative yet socially progressive." In May 2012, Booker defended Bain Capital's record and criticized Obama's attack on private equity. In response, the Republican National Committee created a petition called I Stand With Cory Booker. Booker has also received criticism from both progressives and liberals, such as Ronald Rice and Rush Holt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker#Political_positions

[Trust Buster]

18. Thank you, some seem to not be familiar with this guy's record of self promotion.

[B Calm]

20. Thanks!

[rjsquirrel]

30. "Neoliberal" is such a tiresome insult

It means "a liberal I don't like because his socialism isn't pure enough."

America is a diverse country. Centrists always get attacked from the ideological extremes. But they are the ones who actually get anything done.

FDR would be called a neoliberal today. He supported free trade and his reforms were meant to preserve capitalism not overthrow it.

No one claims themselves to be a "neoliberal." It isn't an ideology, just an insult..."Not pure enough for me."

Booker is a passionate and smart leader.

[auntpurl]

31. Thanks for this info.

[aikoaiko]

19. In some ways he is a natural successor to HRC and the Clintonian style of being a Democrat.

[Nye Bevan]

21. I've always liked him.

But many here would say that he doesn't hate corporations enough.

[geek tragedy]

22. No thanks. Reason: this--

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/05/20/487391/newark-mayor-cory-booker-defends-bain-capital-attacks-obama-campaign/

[B Calm]

23. You would think attacking the Obama campaign would be

a negative with Hillary supporters.

[geek tragedy]

24. Most people have short memories. nt

[auntpurl]

32. Interesting. Thanks for info.

[Smarmie Doofus]

25. Read this: Michael Powell in NYT

>>>>United States Senator Cory A. Booker talks of his adopted city of Newark as if it were his very own Wild West. As mayor, he ran toward gunshots “that sounded like cannon fire,” cradled a dying boy whose mouth “foamed red” with blood, and learned as much from a plain-spoken woman in the projects “as from any professor.”

This makes for excellent commencement speech fodder.

But a recent state audit underlines that the former mayor might have paid more attention to the prosaic business of running his city. Instead of shoveling driveways — he loved on snowy days to run about Newark with his shovel — he could have attended a meeting, just one, of his Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation.

It turns out this corporation, which the mayor championed and empowered, was pilfering from Newark.

The executive director, Linda Watkins-Brashear, who was a close ally of the mayor, acted like a bear come upon a honey pot. The state comptroller found her total compensation over seven years came to $1.98 million. Yet her salary during those years came to $1.16 million.

It seems she cut herself checks from the agency’s accounts. She also handed millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to friends and a former husband. She has denied wrongdoing.

Then there was the general counsel, Elnardo Webster, who is a close friend and former law partner of Mr. Booker. He made as much as $400,000 without a contract that anyone could find.

Mr. Booker is a splendid retailer of his narrative, but after a while there is a Barnum & Bailey quality to it. His maiden speech in the Senate went on for more than 30 minutes and ranged from the founding fathers to slavery to his own story to, oh yes, unemployment benefits, which was his ostensible point.

He talks, tweets and travels>>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/nyregion/leaders-words-dont-tell-the-real-story.html?_r=0

[bunnies]

26. He also stood in solidarity with Bain Capital against Obama.

Yeah. He's a real gem.

[rjsquirrel]

27. I love him too

I see a future president there

[Adrahil]

28. I prefer Warren, but I'd be happy with Booker. NT