A V.P. & the DNC

With less than a week until the Democratic National Convention and 74 days until the election it looks as if Barack Obama will make his selection for a running mate known this weekend. Speculation about the potential candidates has recently been focused on Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

Senator Joe Biden is a foreign policy expert with working-class roots who made a short-lived bid for the Democratic nomination earlier this year and currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The benefit of choosing Biden would be that he could help Obama win over crucial blue-collar voters in swing-states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. And let’s face it we need to pick up some of those swing-states if we are going to pull this off. The liability of choosing Biden is that he is a Washington insider and this could hurt Obama’s message of change. How much change could one expect with someone on the ticket who has been a senator for over 35 years? And let’s not forget that back in 2007 he referred to Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy".

Governor Tim Kaine was an early Obama backer and has clout in key states. He was the first major political figure outside Mr. Obama's home state to endorse him and he could be an electoral asset to Obama in a state where there is sure to be a fight, Virginia, where Kaine has served as governor since 2006. The downside of choosing Kaine is that he has little to no experience.

Senator Evan Bayh is a former Clinton-supporter and could possibly help unite the party; however, this man has less charm, wit and personality than any politician I have ever seen.

With all of this said, next week promises to be quite interesting. The focus will be off of Beijing and on Denver, Colorado. For more information click on the above picture of Barack Obama and stay tuned.