Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Is Obama eyeing Kansas?

Some weird traffic on the Web has me wondering whether or not Barack Obama is planning on choosing Kan. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as a running mate.
I don't want to go into why I am speculating about this. But let's just say that some folks in D.C. are casting a very wide search net, gathering data from around the Web about John McCain's shellacking at the hands of Mike Huckabee in the Kansas primary back in February.
This is pure speculation on my part. I'm just putting 2 and 2 together to see if the answer is 4 or not. I could be totally wrong on this.
But if Obama does pick Sebelius, it would be a safe bet. She is on everyone's short list right now. She would also deflect major criticisms of an Obama general election campaign: He would be joined on the ticket by a midwestern, more conservative Democratic woman. How could the Hillary supporters complain at that point?
As well, if Obama can hold the Kerry states, win back Iowa and New Mexico to the Democrat side, and win Kansas' 6 electoral college votes, he would beat McCain, 270-268. Obama wouldn't need Ohio or Florida.
Ideally, I would prefer to see Obama pick U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, a champion of worker's rights and an anti-NAFTA activist that Naderites and Perotistas could get excited about. That might just be enough to pull the election off, assuming McCain makes a really stupid VP pick or stumbles badly this fall.

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