I will openly admit that current VP Dick Cheney took the office of vice-presidency to the next level.  Between him and Karl Rove, I believe we saw the power of the vice-presidency go to the next level.  Of course initially this office was remarked by John Nance Garner, VP under FDR 1933-41 that the vice presidency wasn’t “worth a pitcher of warm piss” as a result of the lack of actual roles that the vice presidency had.  I mean, between 1791 and 1918 no vice president attended Cabinet meetings.  And FDR didn’t even tell his then vice president about the atomic plan!

But my, what a long way we’ve come.

Now vice presidents can shoot friends in the face and have them apologize for the trouble that was caused.

The de jure role of the president as outlined by the Constitution is to really be Senate president and to do that lil’ tie breaker thing if there’s a 50-50 vote–clearly Dick Cheney got to exercise that right many times during that first term in office.

The de facto role of the vice president as it stands now is to really be head of state.  To do all of the ceremonial crap that really doesn’t warrant the presidents attention–namely be on death watch and go to funerals as Harry Truman quipped at one time during his FDR vice presidency. 

And then also, the role of the vice president to be advisor to the president, which is where I will take my point of departure for this post.

Am I the only one who’s just not bowled over by the list of potential running mates for Barack Obama?  I mean there’s absolutely nothing that ignites me when I hear the name Evan Bayh and most certainly not when I hear the name Joe Biden.  I mean Joe Biden is a loose cannon, he has the liberal white man’s version of Dick Cheney Mouth, anything is liable to come out.  He might could be the right man to go after Weathervane McCain, but um, Biden’d be the one to slip and make another 7-Eleven gaffe and then MSM and the Republicans would bust out the pic of Obama in traditional Muslim garb and then what!

Dick Cheney has done a wonderful job of doing all of Bush’s dirty work.  I mean it’s a pretty sweet deal.  Cheney got his hands dirty with the whole Iraq policies, the whole Scooter Libby thing, the Enron scandal that closely connected that company with the Bush administration that would ultimately allow Bush to pardon him and everyone else if and when push comes to shove.  Above all, and the most dangerous in my opinion:

Cheney has actively promoted an expansion of the powers of the presidency, saying that the Bush administration’s challenges to the laws which Congress passed after Vietnam and Watergate to contain and oversee the executive branch—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the War Powers Resolution—are, in Cheney’s words, “a restoration, if you will, of the power and authority of the president.

Isn’t Wikipedia wonderful?  

Right now my pick is with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.  Something about him feels a bit better.  Note I said, a bit.  Not a lot.  I’m just not bowled over by these people.  My personal pick would have been to go with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.  I mean that means there’s someone who could have at least been an inroad into a demographic that Obama has not made much of an effort to cater toward. [Hmmmm, now that I think about it, have either of the candidates done their job speaking to Latino issues?  I know illegal immigration isn’t just a Mexican issue, but that is an overall arching issue in other Latino communities, not just Mexican].  I think Richardson would have been liberal enough and would have fallen in better lock-step with Obama’s motif of “Change we can believe in.”

Now Tim Kaine just seems to be gushing about Obama which I think makes him appeal to me [LMAO!!! Inside joke] but, at the end of the day, I’m not convinced.  I’m assuming that it’s part of the strategy to pick someone a bit anti-thetical to you in order to do this wider-reaching appeal, but I’m just not overly pleased with this strategy. 

For all of this, he might as well throw his cards with Biden and just pray it all works out.  I mean, Bush the Second made the decision to pick someone who could do his dirty work.  I think that’s the question that the Obama team needs to be asking.  Not necessarily can some help me get elected, but take the Republican or conservative route and act as though you’re taking the moral high road and stick to your guns.  If Obama is painting himself as this neo-Liberal, then pick a neo-liberal candidate who has enough attack dog in him [yeah, I’m not seeing any women in the field] to go after the Republicans and call them out on their BS.

Oh yeah…I forgot…she acted an ass during the primaries and acted as though she was entitled to some ish.

Hmmm….never thought I would have arrived at this conclusion, go figure.  Hillary Clinton as the best VP candidate according to what I just said up there popped into my mind, go figure.  I mean, imagine the attacks of Bill Clinton and the acidity of Hillary directed toward McCain.

 

Alas, them doing that is a “fairy tale” in and of itself.

But, I guess we need to go on to the next choices, cuz picking Hillary would make a “over my dead body” come out of my mouth.

Guess, I’ll restate what I’ve said already, these potential veeps just aint doing nun for my shondo.  I guess this is just another notch in a seemingly lackluster campaign.

How do you feel about the current Veepstakes?  In the current potential field of candidates, how do you feel about them?  Do you like them, do you not like them?  If you could add one or take one away, who would it be?  Do you have ANY idea what I mean when I said they “aint doing nun for my shondo”? LOL

Keep it uppity and keep it truthfully radical, JLL