A long-ish list of potential VP’s for Clinton; for Trump, an even longer list of politicians who already ruled out accepting an offer.
My personal favorite is Julian Castro, but I’d be 100% happy with Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
I am not rooting for Warren because I prefer her as a loud mouthed progressive Senator, maybe not as strong a deal maker as Teddy Kennedy (mostly because of the changes to the GOP) but perhaps inheriting his Lion of the Senate mantle.
An executive – Governor, major city mayor – would be best.
I’m not sure VP is the most strategic position of power for someone of Warren’s great ideas and talents. Aside from a powerful committee chair once the Senate goes back into Democratic hands, I could see her as a member of Clinton’s Cabinet, such as Secretary of Commerce, or Treasury, or HUD, or the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, or, or, or…
Warren would be a good choice, if the Senate could be secured for Dems. That’s my only worry here.
I agree with you about Warren: More impact as a senator, and frankly I can’t imagine her not being frustrated as VP. There’s also the Senator replacement issue. Warren and Brown are from states with GOP governors.
Finally, I’d love for the VP candidate to help create coattails that trip up McCain, Grassley, Portman, Toomey and Ayotte (though that may not drive the Clinton campaign), and I’m not sure Warren’s a big help there.
If forced to bet, I’d go with Tim Kaine. He’s been a governor, hails from a purple state, is well liked by Bernie Sanders, and has a Democratic governor to appoint his successor. Not second guessing the campaign’s vetting or strategy – just doing a bit of odds making. And, as is usually the case in this particular game, I’m probably wrong!
Sen. Tim Kaine is still pretty popular here in Virginia – so strategically speaking, choosing him would be a wise decision if you’re looking to shore up Virginia. Though we are purple and trending bluer (very slowly and grudgingly), there’s still a strong potential to rile up the (wrong) natives, so-to-speak, and drive them to the polls. He’s pretty centrist, though, and not someone I’d likely consider would draw in the more hard-core Bernie folks who are still reachable. If a strong consideration is to still reach out to that group, I’d suggest Warren or Julian Castro (though Castro is lesser known, he’s considered to the left of Clinton). That said, you state that Kaine is well-liked by Bernie. That, I didn’t know – but if Kaine were considered and chosen, it might be an easier way of getting Bernie to reach out to his more hard-core supporters that weren’t there just to muck up the nominating process anyway (and, yes, Bernie, there were a lot of them, sorry to say).
Well duh!
She won’t go with Kaine, IMO. If ideology is the key decider, she needs to go left to appease the Bernites. She has no need to go centrist to appease or please anyone. Or, alternately, pick a Latino. But we’ll lose Warren’s seat and, more importantly, lose her voice. She is filling Ted Kennedy’s shoes there. We can’t afford to lose her. Or that seat.
She’s probably vetting a whole lot of people to give herself some options. What about the good Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy? I don’t know much about him, but I like him.
I said last year it would be a Castro, however.
I’m with you on the Senate. And I think it will be time to pass the torch to Bernie’s crew in 2024. A younger progressive champion VP would be ideal, but who is that?
Still on the Castro train here. Warren’s too damn valuable in the Senate. We need every intelligent, well-spoken progressive voice in Congress that we can get.
I’m with you on Castro. If doing so would finally get the typically apathetic Hispanic voter in Texas to the polls, we could finally make progress here.
Tim Kaine is not pro-choice.
The problem for Clinton is that the Democratic “bench” is extremely thin, which is largely a consequence of the horrible performance of the Democratic Party during the 2010 and 2014 mid-terms.
I’ve never gotten the impression that Kaine is anything more than a very conventional centrist Democratic pol. Inasmuch as he is a former head of the DNC—and was in that spot during the disastrous 2010 midterms—I can’t believe he’d be welcomed with much more favor by Sanders supporters than DWS would be.
Everything I’ve read about Julian Castro suggests to me that he’s a bit of a lightweight. I think Thomas Perez has a much more impressive resumé, but he has even less electoral experience than Castro does.
I also think it would be nuts to take Warren out of the Senate, regardless of whether it’s for Veep or a Cabinet position.
Eric Garcetti has a pretty interesting resume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Garcetti
My impression as well – hence, why he’s still pretty popular here in Virginia.
John Kerry —
Massachusetts law calls for a special election after about five months, so Gov. Baker’s appointee wouldn’t be in office for too long (but of course would get to run as an incumbent in a low-turnout special election).
Yes, and this level of “vetting” is more like “pre-vettng”, and I suspect this is more a leak to throw people of the real trail than anything else, with the added bonus of being able to say “Sure, we looked at Elizabeth”.
Hillary is not a big risk taker as a politician…going with Warren is taking two risks. First, she is a woman…and a two woman ticket is probably something Hillary would just as soon avoid, and secondly, Elizabeth is older, which would totally buck the 30 year trend in that regard.
My guess is still Castro, too.