Huffington Posts' article on the possibility of Wes Clark as V.P. - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/11/theme-for-third-night-of_n_118221.html - got me wondering about Clark as a VP nom (I've always wanted it to be him, but the drama a month or two ago made me think twice).

Then Mike Allen's playbook mentioned this:

MONDAY -- Democrats: One Nation; Republicans: Service.


TUESDAY -- Democrats: Renewing America's Promise; Republicans: Reform.


WEDNESDAY: Democrats: Securing America's Future; Republicans: Prosperity.


THURSDAY: Democrats: Change You Can Believe In; Republicans: Peace.


Look again at Night 3. Alert GOP tipsters were very jazzed about the
fact that Wes Clark's PAC is 'WesPAC-Securing America's Future.' But
not as excited as they'd be if Obama actually made Clark his running
mate.

Wasn't news to me at that point, but the fact that GOP tipsters were "jazzed" was...

Now I know why they were jazzed, because Clark was called out for a full week in the media for saying that being shot down in a plane doesn't mean you're automatically qualified to be president. But would they really be all that excited if Clark was VP?

I'm not going to give you a list of qualifications that you've probably already wikied, I'm just going to give three reasons why Clark's recent media encounter aren't really that bad for Obama:

1) Dick Cheney

Nobody likes poor Cheney. However, people spent so much time over the past 8 years bashing him that Bush looked positively righteous next to him; he was a useful distraction, and undoubtedly a seasoned politician. People that wouldn't vote for someone because of Cheney as VP already weren't going to vote for Bush.

2) T.H. Huxley

"Darwin's Bulldog" and grandfather of Aldous Huxley (not really relevant but a fun piece of history), Huxley epitomizes the natural role of a VP: if you can't say it yourself, get someone out there to take the attention away and go after your enemies.

3) Barack Obama

People keep saying that if the election is about Barack Obama instead of Bush or McCain or Republicans or (insert other media stand-in for someone/something who/that isn't Barack Obama) Obama could lose. People also keep talking about the overdose of Obama that people are beginning to feel - 18 months is a long, long time for a media story to run. If Clark is picked, the next week or two of political coverage will be about Clark - and McCain. You'll hear repeated sound bites of "being shot down doesn't make you president" and people will likely take shots at Clark's ethics of bringing that up... and Clark will take the shots, and will defend his words, and the election will change from being about Obama and his policies and his flag pin to being about Clark and the bullets he took in 'Nam and whether or not he's so much more qualified than McCain that he has a right to say that airplane crashes do not a president make.