really hope this guy is just being coy and wants to be bound by duty to join the ticket; despite the risk of losing a senate seat, i think he would help seal the deal. btw, his comments on incarceration in this country are spot on-- there needs to be a serious national dialogue about not just how we ended up going from a prison population of  200,000 to 2 million + in a little more than 30 years, but how dwe deal effectively with 750k people coming back from prison every year without skills, services or community. a sad footnote to this crisis is that the '96 crime bill that Clinton signed was one of his classic triangulation moves that only exacerbated this american tragedy.

Anyway, on the VP stakes, as i've sad elsewhere, i'm putting my money on long shot chet edwards. 

rationale for edwards: geographic balance, record of winning in gop territory, strong military support, in line with obama on other issues, white male in his late 50s. weakness is that he comes from the house of reps, no major executive experience.

rationale for why others fall out the mix: sebelius, richardson offer one too many firsts; webb, strickland and rendell have all pulled themselves from the process; warner is needed to gain a senate seat; control of the senate is critical, so dodd and biden, like webb, are staying put; hagel disagrees on every position obama holds besides the war, but he will pop up in the cabinet; powell is too tainted by iraq though he will likely pop up in the cabinet; bayh is too young; j.edwards won't run a second time as vp, but should get new cabinet level position on poverty; clinton brings too much bill baggage, will likely get debt relief and a first look at a supreme court slot. could be another sleeper out there with military experience that i've missed, but i think cats like clark and zinni are already out the mix.

thoughts?

gkp