Experts Expound

“Who do you think Obama and McCain will select as vice presidential running mates? Does convention timing play a role here (Dems meet first)?”

Let’s talk about the important stuff first – will the legislative session be completed by the time the conventions role around?
Obama will pick a white male. So will McCain.

Timing matters. On the Democratic side, the choices are Hillary Clinton and everybody else. If the Democrats do not pick a woman, then McCain has an opportunity to exploit Obama’s relative weakness with women voters. In that case, a top-tier contender would be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

General Wesley Clark, something in a skirt, and Yes. Does Florida’s Charlie Crist do “dress up?” If not, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, but she’s a Texas chick, so she doesn’t connect with suburbanites on the coasts. McCain gets the final “at bat” in this one. Doesn’t matter, in 2008 the Reps are going to whiff, bigtime.

Obama will select Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. He will help with some of the Southern swing states and gives Obama a popular executive to counter some of his inexperience. McCain will choose Florida Governor Charlie Christ to help bolster himself in the South and ensure that he wins Florida.

The pressure is clearly on Senator Obama to choose first and to deftly handle the Hillary question. He should choose Hillary or the next best thing – Ted Strickland. Bloomberg would be an interesting wild card. McCain’s in an impossible situation, since the Republican bench simply does not include anyone who can both mollify a religious right that doesn’t trust him and attract swing-state independents, but Governors Crist and Jindal come close to fitting the bill.

Obama should pick DiFi, who is more qualified than Hillary and can attract more voters. McCain: Romney.

McCain: Tim Pawlenty. Obama: Not Hillary

It would be safe to say that Todd Spitzer thinks he would be the best choice for the McCain ticket. Abel Maldonado probably thinks he is in the running too.

On the Obama ticket, Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former next Assemblyman from Santa Clara, Dominic Caserta, and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine are probably the Final Four.

This is not California politics, which is what CW covers.

The people from whom we sought opinions:: Elizabeth Ashford, Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, Morgan Crinklaw, J Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio,  Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O’Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Ralph Simoni, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Gary South, Kevin Spillane, Rich Zeiger.