As you read this, I am back in the States taking care of some personal business, as well as taking the pulse of my fellow American voters about the upcoming general election.
I have also discussed with many of my friends the three candidates I think would be best as vice president, and its safe to say the vast majority think I’m crazy. Part of the problem with these long-shot candidates is that many Americans either don’t know who these people are, and the few who do know very little about them.
I will begin by first discussing the only female vice presidential candidate not named ‘Clinton’. Kathleen Sebelius is currently serving in her second and last term as the Democratic governor of the historically Republican state of Kansas, after winning her 2006 re-election race by a landslide 18 percentage points over her Republican opponent. Sebelius has proven to be a very popular and capable executive during her two terms as governor and has dealt effectively with a state legislature dominated by the Republican Party. But Sebelius is also the daughter of former Ohio governor John J Gilligan and is half of the first father-daughter governor pair in United States history. As a result, she has strong ties to the state of Ohio as well as the state of Michigan, where she grew up, and currently maintains a vacation home in Traverse City. Michigan and Ohio are key swing states in US presidential elections so by picking her as his running mate, Obama would increase his chances of winning both states in the general election. It also goes without saying that selecting Sebelius would also help Obama win over many of Hillary Clinton’s very disappointed women supporters throughout the country. While not well known to many Americans outside of the US Midwest, Sebelius is held in high regard by National Democratic Party figures. She was actually touted as a possible running mate for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race and was also one of the first Democratic superdelegates to come out in support of Barack Obama.
However, while I am a strong supporter of Sebelius as a VP candidate, I don’t see it in her future. I think it is much more likely she will run for and win the US senate seat of Republican senator and former presidential candidate Sam Brownback, when her second term as governor is up in 2010. An even less well-known running mate possibility for Obama is one of my other two favourites – retired four-star US Marine Corps general, Anthony Zinni. As a veteran of the Vietnam War and former commanderin- chief of US military forces in the Middle East, Zinni brings the military experience and credibility that Republican nominee John McCain wields to Obama’s ticket as his vice president. But in addition to his military commander credentials, Zinni also brings with him foreign policy gravitas as he was also appointed to serve as a special envoy for the United States to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2002.
Furthermore, Zinni was an early and vocal public critic of the Bush administration and, much like Senator Obama, did not support Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq, which is also why he left his post as Bush’s special envoy for Israel and Palestine in 2003. Zinni’s 2004 memoir, Battle Ready, co-authored with Tom Clancy, is stinging rebuke of the Bush administration and the man he voted for as President in 2000, as well as a must-read for anyone interested in knowing the real story behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But as much as I like him as a VP choice, I don’t think Zinni really wants to become that involved in politics, and think it more likely he would serve as Obama’s national security advisor than run as his vice president. So that brings me to the last of my three favourites, a Republican senator from the state of Nebraska. While I may well be wrong about this, I believe that in a bid to demonstrate his commitment to a new era of bipartisan politics, Obama will actually select US senator Chuck Hagel from the opposition Republican Party to be his vice president. So how did I come to such an outrageous conclusion? For starters, Hagel is a Vietnam War veteran, a lifelong Republican and a member of the senate foreign relations committee who previously worked as political organiser for Ronald Reagan. So his selection would not only be an unprecedented bi-partisan gesture but would also bring the military and foreign policy credentials that Obama lacks to the ticket.
Furthermore, Hagel left government service in 1982 and became a multi-millionaire business entrepreneur and CEO before he returned as a US senator in 1996. Thus, he also possesses the business experience and economic credentials that both Obama and his opponent John McCain are lacking. But unlike McCain, Hagel was an also an early critic and vocal opponent of the Iraq War and his wife, Lilibet, is a major financial supporter of Obama. While Chuck Hagel wouldn’t be a popular choice for some Democrats, Obama would find huge support for this among independent and Republican voters, particularly in Midwestern states that usually vote Republican. Next week I will discuss who McCain might choose as his potential VP.
