I've had a rather nice day watching the Sunday morning shows and getting a haircut. I've come to like "This Week" more and more, if not for Stephanopolous, then for the usually very good panel, particularly George Will and Cokie Roberts. I can only hope that after the election NBC does the right thing and installs either Chuck Todd (Chucky T) or David Gregory in Tim Russert's chair. For my money, Tom Brokaw just isn't aggressive enough. I refer to Face the Nation as "watching that old man", and Fox News Sunday is just surprisingly disappointing. Even after a set revamp, they still look like they're stuck in the 80's, and except for the occasional appearance by Karl Rove and sometimes Bill Kristol, the panelists are sub-par.
For such a deep voiced man, John Kerry has come to sound decidedly shrill. A shrillness that is only matched by Claire McCaskill. The Republican surrogates on the other hand are much more civil and well behaved - positively polite even. I'm just compiling a list in my head of all the rather impressive people they manage to put forward, not just as surrogates, but as potential VP picks.
Lindsey Graham I like very much, and he seems of all of them the most likely to be an attack dog and McCain's man in the Senate. Joe Lieberman is fantastic, especially today up against Kerry. I still say about Kerry that he was a mistake and he should never have been nominated. He's awful and boring and stiff, and now he's exactly the same only contrivedly forceful from having been smacked around. I remember saying very pointedly that I rather Howard Dean lose the general to Bush than Kerry win. Bobby Jindal is nicely impressive, and would be a superb pick in any circumstance. Rob Portman I trust just because of his trade background and his impeccable economic credentials, and he's not a bad surrogate, if a little mild and bland. I wouldn't be surprised if he had hidden depths of killer though. I must say I was less than wowed by Tim Pawlenty, especially up against the jibber jabber of the very charismatic Rahm Emanuel a couple weeks back.
But all in all I'm most especially impressed by Carly Fiorina, who's probably at least going to be Treasury Secretary, but who I personally think would be one of the very best choices for McCain's VP. The "shrill" comparison was especially marked when she was going toe to toe with McCaskill on Meet the Press not long ago. McCaskill was flailing away and Fiorina was dignified and unflappable. I only worry that it would be thought of too much as stunt casting, but I think she has more than enough substance to fight against that characterisation. And in the end I think she's a much better presumptive nominee in 4 or 8 years than the one waiting in the wings now, who seems to be getting so much buzz. I appreciate that Romney is helpful in Michigan, and in many ways that's going to be the whole BOW (ball of wax) this time round for McCain, but I'd like to think that as long as Obama doesn't choose Hillary, McCain would be well placed to be competitive for the womens vote.
I know Hillary is a long shot for Obama, but in many ways if he was going to choose her, this is the way he should go about it. The last thing you want is to not have the full list be aired, the right names be put forward for the future of the party, and the right constituencies smoothed by having their guy mentioned on the short list. Also, you want the Republicans to be napping and have to really dust off their Hillary ads/strategy when you bring her back. It could still happen, and it really should happen. For the uninitiated, I was a Hillary supporter before she got out of the race and I've just been gradually more and more alienated over to John McCain's side. Not lest by the character of Obama, but by the manifest problems with the Democratic platform under his candidacy. For Hillary the pivot to centrism would have been so natural, and instead we have to live through him fumbling for authenticity in the middle.
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