Given that there are some legitimate concerns about Hillary Clinton's age already, she needs to select a VP several decades younger than she is. Biden's been veep for almost eight years now, and at age 73 may well be looking forward to an even quieter life.
One of the things that bothered me a great deal on the Democratic side during this entire primary season, is that there has been almost no new blood in the mix. Elizabeth Warren would have been that newcomer I would have loved to been able to vote for. But she chose not to run and all of those who are dreamily proposing her for VP, apparently have forgotten that a while back one strong argument against her running was that she was needed in the Senate. That still applies.
Bernie was a newcomer to the Democratic party and to the National scene, but his age was likewise a concern, although all the way through his campaign he certainly displayed a lot more energy than Hillary. Doesn't matter now.
I know some of the names that have been put out for the VP slot, and while I have no sense of who'd be good (other than Biden and Warren being poor choices) but keep in mind what the essential qualifications for that job are:
1. Must align well with Hillary's policies. Which may well include a lot of shifting about on various ones, but that of course goes with the territory.
2. Must be likeable, appeal to categories of people who might otherwise not be willing to vote for her. Personally I've never had a VP selection change who I was going to vote for, although Gore's selection of Lieberman was a terrible one, not quite bad enough to keep me from voting for them, however.
3. Must be willing to do nothing very important most of the time. Attend funerals, represent the President at various functions here and abroad.
4. Must never, never be actually more appealing than the President.
5. It's considered desirable to have a VP who gives some sort of diversity to the ticket, but not so much as to turn off too many potential voters. So Keith Ellison would be excellent in many ways, his being a Muslim at this particular time in history would be used against him, perhaps effectively enough to cost the White House. Same problem with a woman vp at this point.
6. Which is why a Hispanic could be just the choice. But what do I know?
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