I don't spend much time talking about this because, frankly, I don't really care. Whoever can increase Big John's chances of getting elected is fine by me, and while I have opinions about who that might be I don't really have much confidence in them.
I don't have much patience with people who should know better who get all snippy about the possibility that Kerry won't pick a Veep candidate who will appeal to them personally. Look, just about everyone who reads this blog is a bit more informed about this kind of thing than the average person (not because this blog is so brilliant, but because blog readers are news junkies). The Veep choice is about a) electoral strategy and b) choosing someone Kerry can stand to be around. I thought all the McCain talk was silly, not because I would particularly mind if we had a Vice President McCain, but because I thought there was 0 chance of it happening and because I also disagreed with the conventional wisdom that it would be a boost to Kerry and Dems generally.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that who cares of Kerry picks Zell Miller as his running mate (not that he will)? The VP has little real power, and if the media reports say "Kerry VP choice designed to appeal to moderates," well, then, maybe it'll work. This is an election -- who cares if Kerry is currently trying to appeal to you or whichever bloc of voters you imagine you're representative of. It doesn't matter. He needs to appeal roughly 50%+ of the country, depending on the geographic vote distribution. We all should be smart enough to realize that what really matters is a) that he gets elected and then b) what he does once he's elected. We should be smart enough to understand that while everything he does during election season has an impact on his getting elected, it doesn't necessarily have much of an impact on how he will actually govern.
I heard Tim Robbins on the radio complaining about Kerry not doing things to "appeal to progressives" or something like that. Well, who cares? It's similar to Nader voters (and, no, I'm not trying to reignite this fight) who would say things like "Why wouldn't Gore just adopt a part of the Green platform?" What would the point of that be? Platforms are written and then quickly ignored, as is much campaign rhetoric. It doesn't matter if Kerry throws any particularly constituency a rhetorical bone now. What matters is how Kerry governs. And, yes, I'll be the leader of the STFU brigade against anyone who says "well, he does have to worry about getting re-elected in 4 years..."
