Dear Clinton, you want to lose ground with your base, then pick Vilsack or Kaine

[pnwmom]

85. Then she should pick Vilsack. They have a relationship going back to when she

was working on the Watergate committee.

And he gets bonus points for being the very popular Governor of an important swing state, and for a position -- Ag Sec -- which has allowed him to travel around the world.

He is also someone with special awareness of rural voters and the problems of drug and alcohol addiction.

But his biggest strength , to me, is his personal story. He clearly appears to be white but doesn't know anything about his ethnic background. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was born in an orphanage, where he had a name tag that said "Kenneth" around his wrist -- until he was finally adopted as a toddler. His mother was an alcoholic and a drug addict, and left the family when the boy was 13. Both his adopted parents died by the age of 57.

He is a man whose caring and sense of purpose comes from his own early challenges. I think if he is the VP America will quickly warm up to him.