Armchair Experts

There's been lots of chatter over the past several days about Jim Webb and his potential appeal as a vice presidential running mate for Barack Obama. I understand some of Webb's appeal, and in many ways like his assertiveness in contrast to the image of many Democrats. But he also has a reputation as a loose cannon who would create great risk for Obama. He's also got potentially serious issues with female voters, which I don't want to rehash, but I think it's safe to say that those issues will be made very prominent in the event Webb is on the ticket. So while he may, in a hypothetical way (to the extent that any running mate does), enhance Obama's appeal to the "working class white men" (who are apparently the media's "soccer moms" of 2008), he may, in fact, hurt Obama quite badly with those soccer moms.

Not to mention that, outside of Virginia and those who follow politics closely, people don't really know Jim Webb and, moreover, I'd hate to give up a Senate seat that would be really hard for many others to win.

Jim Webb on the ticket also fails to address other significant issue that Barack Obama needs to consider at this stage of the campaign. Specifically, how to placate the Clinton supporters, and get them to turn away from the destructiveness of the primary campaign.

It seems to me that a potential running mate for Senator Obama needs to address several issues: (a) healing the Clinton rift, (b) creating some appeal to the "working class whites" -- at least in the media's eyes, and (c) bolstering credentials on security (not someone who has hawkish views that conflict with Obama's views, but someone who lends credibility to Obama's opposition to the Iraq misadventure and believes in a reasoned approach to foreign engagement).

Given those criteria, I don't understand why we don't see more discussion about Wes Clark as a Vice President. He's southern, smart, with credentials on defense that exceed anyone in the political landscape (save for the perception of Colin Powell, at least before he joined the Bush administration), who has been as vocal and thoughtful as anyone on why the Iraq war and Bush foreign policy have been bad for American security. He's a soldier who fought for his country, but also planned and executed strategy in a way that very few have even had the opportunity to do, no less do successfully (with international support, to boot). And while Webb's personality would contrast with Obama's, which I think would be counter-productive (allowing people to conclude that they preferred a different style), Wes Clark's personality complements Obama's.

General Clark also seems like the right man to broker peace with the Clinton camp. He has been on the Clinton team, and is someone that Hillary can, with a straight fact, support in that role, without looking calculating. Played right, if the Clinton camp can get strongly behind Clark, that would allow as smooth a transition of her voters over to Obama as I can imagine.

All that being said, things could change by the time of the convention. We're all just armchair experts here.