There are three very important qualities Obama needs to balance in his Vice Presidential pick. First and most importantly, Obama needs to make an inspired choice, not a cynical one. If he makes a choice that is obviously political, I think a lot of people will be turned off. He has to choose someone who is passionate, energetic, and sincere, and who believes in Obama's message of change. His running mate should also have experience, though, to compensate for Obama's lack of it. I like the image of a fellow Senator saying something like, "I've been in Washington for 20 years, and I can tell you that Barack Obama has what it takes to change Washington and take us in a better direction." In choosing someone with significant experience, however, Obama must be careful not to take someone too old. We've already seen that John McCain's age may be a factor in this race, and Obama should make sure not to open his campaign up to the same weakness. He needs someone less than 65 years old, I think. Another benefit to a younger running mate is that the VP will be hopefully be someone the party can build around as a future President.

Allow me to suggest someone who meets all three of those qualifications, with some additional upsides. The person I'm thinking of is only 55, but has been in the Senate for 15 years and represents a swing state that Obama probably needs to win. This person is Jewish (don't worry, it's not Lieberman), which could re-assure Jewish voters skeptical of Obama., and sits on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the most important foreign policy committee in Congress.

This Senator voted against the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act. Those votes may have seemed like political suicide a few years ago, but now they're a clear positive, with the American public overwhelmingly against both the war and Bush's domestic spying program.

This person is a champion for campaign ethics, undercutting McCain's strongest appeal. The Senator I have in mind is a hero to progressives on the Left, but has an impressive record of bi-partisanship. In fact, this person will be exceedingly difficult to paint as a liberal extremist, because he is best-known for his work in tandem with John McCain.

This person, of course, is Russ Feingold.

His idealism and principles are a great match for Obama's messages of hope and of changing Washington's culture. He's young, but not inexperienced. He allows Obama to emphasize McCain's support for the war in Iraq -- which I think is key; a VP who supported the war undermines Obama's message and opens the ticket to charges of flip-flopping.

Feingold's record consistently demonstrates principles over politics, and he is best-known for the same piece of legislation that initially brought McCain widespread recognition, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. If McCain tries to paint a holier-than-thou picture of his campaign ethics, he will positively dwarfed by Feingold, who is a saint. And if Karl Rove and his minions try to smear Feingold as a far-Left liberal, they run into the fact that most of the public automatically associates Feingold with McCain and their bi-partisan bill. The McCain camp can't even raise Feingold's votes against the war and the Patriot Act, because that would probably lose them more votes than it would gain.

I realize this is against the conventional wisdom, but it seems to be me that Feingold has a lot to offer as a Vice Presidential candidate.

I'd be interested to hear what others think about this, whether you agree with me or not.

Now that the Democratic primary process is winding down, with Barack Obama as the apparent nominee, Hillary Clinton can return her attention to the Senate. I assume that having discovered, in the last few months, that her greatest passion is voter empowerment and voting rights, she will devote all her energy to securing congressional representation for the District of Columbia. After all, DC is home to nearly 600 thousand people with no voting power in the House or Senate.

Senator Clinton co-sponsored the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007, which came within three votes of the 60 needed to end discussion and pass the bill. With high-profile support from Senator Clinton, it seems likely that this long-standing injustice will finally be ended. I look forward to seeing this become her top legislative priority when she returns to the Senate.

It has been suggested in recent weeks that Barack Obama, if he wins the Democratic nomination, should select Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) as his running mate. Such suggestions are -- and I mean this as gently as possible -- insane. Among Democratic governors and senators, I don't know that I can think of a single worse vice presidential candidate for Obama. Maybe Robert Byrd (who is 90 years old and used to be in the KKK). Here are five reasons Obama can not tab Webb for VP:

1. Webb is a conservative Democrat. He has only been a Democrat for two years -- he was a Republican until 2006 -- and he served in the Reagan Administration. While Obama has done very well with independent voters, he needs to shore up his Democratic base, and I don't see how Webb does that. Such a cynical, obviously political ploy could also turn off many of the progressives and young voters who have supported Obama to this point.

2. Webb has faced accusations of misogyny. After a shockingly divisive primary in which Senator Clinton was a regular victim of sexism in the media, and in which women overwhelmingly supported her, Senator Obama needs to consolidate the Democratic Party's largest and most important constituency. In 1979, while at the Navy, Webb wrote an article entitled "Women Can't Fight". In the essay, Webb flatly states that "no benefit to anyone can come from women serving in combat." It gets much worse from there, and is an undeniably sexist document. Read it if you don't believe me -- it's pretty bad. It's probably unfair to speculate on whether his misogyny contributed to either of Webb's divorces.

3. Webb would hurt Obama with Hispanics. This is already a weak constituency for Obama, to the point that Bill Richardson -- the Hispanic governor of a border state -- makes a very tempting Vice Presidential nominee. But Webb "takes a harder line on illegal immigration than many Senate Republicans." A hard-line immigration critic who voted to build a fence on the Mexican border and declare English the national language could hurt not only Obama, but -- in a worst-case scenario -- the Democratic Party's future with Hispanics.

4. Webb shares Obama's weaknesses. The most persuasive argument against Obama is his lack of experience. Webb has years of military service, but his direct experience in politics is even more limited than Senator Obama's. Webb has spent less than two years in elected office, and his nine-month stint as Secretary of the Navy for Reagan counts for far less than Obama's years in the Illinois State Senate. Where a Chris Dodd or Bill Richardson could add gravitas to Obama's ticket, Webb might actually subtract in that area.

5. Webb doesn't bring a state with him. Conventional wisdom says that a presidential candidate should try to find a running mate from a swing state. That's obviously not necessary -- I think Bush II could have won Wyoming without Cheney, for instance -- but it can certainly be helpful. Webb is from Virginia, which is traditionally a red state but which many believe Obama might be able to win. The state has been trending Democratic, and Obama soundly beat Senator Clinton there in the Democratic primary. The problem is that Virginians aren't that crazy about Webb. They don't know him very well yet -- he's been in the Senate for less than a year and a half, and he never served in any other state office -- and he won less than 50% of the popular vote in 2006. Someone like Russ Feingold (Wisconsin) or Richardson (New Mexico), who are popular and well-known in their states, would make more sense if this is one of Obama's goals.


What Webb would bring to the ticket are military experience and a Centrist résumé. I don't believe those assets outweigh the disadvantages with progressives, young people, women, and Hispanics, nor do they address concerns about Obama's lack of experience, or offer a clear advantage in a swing state. Further, I think the movement to draft Webb as Obama's VP fundamentally misunderstands the mood in the country and the reasons Obama's campaign has been successful. By substantial majorities, the American public disapproves of Republicans and the ways they have run the country for the last 14 years. But Americans have also rejected the failed "triangulation" policies embodied by the Clintons and their closest political allies, and choosing Webb as a vice presidential candidate would represent the same sort of conservative appeasement that has consistently failed both the Democratic Party and the nation as a whole.