If McCain does win he has pledged to continue many of the initiatives begun by George Bush. He would probably be less partisan and more competent, but he is still a conservative Republican who will submit conservative picks for the SCOTUS. That would set the progressive movement back even farther.

I'm not saying that this worked well- it didn't- but Cheney never took the traditional VP role of going to funerals and giving speeches. Clinton is not Obama. Clinton didnt' select Gore for his expertise in foreign affairs– but Its a probable bet that Obama selected Biden because of it. There's no sure way of knowing what Biden's role would be in the new administration unless he's elected.

I doubt if the U.S. will be interested in voting for a “little old lady” in eight years. Female politicains suffer from the same problem that female actors suffer from: the do not age as gracefully as men.

this was the time for Hillary clinton to win and she missed her chance. I believe that is why she stayed in the race for so long. She has no second chance unless Senator Obama loses and that just is not going to happen.

This is also good news for those Dems who do want to be president someday- instead of waiting sixteen years, then only need to prepare themselves after eight… Waiting sixteen years when you're in your 40s and 50s and 60s is a long time…

A minority of Clinton supporters have apparently abandoned anything resembling rational thought once Clinton lost. For them the VP slot doesn't matter, only striking back at Obama and the Democratic Party motivates them now.

I think you have forgotten the initial success that Rumsfled had in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld thought we have a visionary and was recreating warfare. It was not until a year after the invasion of Iraq and everyone began to blame Rumsfled. However, there were many in the Pentagon who hated Rumsfled and espeically Wolfowitz.

Bush talk about using Cheney in the foreign policy role. I doubt if Senator Obama really plans of giving Senator Biden any direct responsbility. Remember, all Clinton did with Gore was give him the program of using credit cards to purchase government supplies.

A good quesiton is who SEnator Obama sees as his heir or will Obama be like President Clinton as refuse to share the stage or be like Bush as be unable to identify talent and advance people?

As I have already pointed out, the VP has virtually nothing to do with foreign policy. If the wonk wannabes would remember how the government actually works, the talk of foreign policy expertise would stop. Did Al Gore have anything to go with foreign policy in the Clinton Admnistration. Have we already forgotten how the State Department fueded with the VP Cheney's staff.

Unless Senator Obama says that he plans on giving Biden some specific responsiblity for foreign policy, then it all just campaign time marketing.

I think Senator Obama picked someone without many built in constituencies and who is too old to run for president in eight years. That means that Senator Obama is really mentoring others.

My sense is that because McCain's campaign and other Republicans with influence are throwing out various names, especially names like Hillary (Kristol) and Powell, that they are running a little scared with the Obama/Biden choice. As such these names would inevitably help McCain, but they are not realistic. They're knee jerk reactions. They also give pundits something to talk about other than Obama/Biden.

Now they're trying to bail themselves out via his good reputation.

The sense of entitlement of the neocons is like a bottomless well,.

Colin Powell WILL NOT sell out his principles/values twice in a row.

Of couse the Obama campaign has over twice the funds of McCain and is going to make the Republicans work in states that have been locks for the Republicans in the past. However, there is no former blue state where the Republicans are ahead.

The media wants the election to appear close until the last few days so that people will pay attention. The poll numbers show that Obama is far in the lead.