Veepstakes: Claire McCaskill

I like Claire McCaskill a lot. She doesn't talk like a Senator. She talks like a real person who worked as a waitress to put herself through law school. A woman from a working class background who can balance a budget, she should appeal to the disaffected Hillary voters. She doesn't come from money and she's not a fake. To my mind she has been Obama's best surrogate on the talking head shows, smart, tough, and on message.

On the downside, she has no military or foreign policy experience. And my brother thinks she's too ambitious to take the bucket of warm spit job.

Me, I'd give her two thumbs up for the job.

She wiped the floor with Carly Fiorina yesterday on MTP.

David Mixner, HuffPo: Senator Claire McCaskill for Vice President

Veepstakes: Jack Reed

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Senator Jack Reed helped broker a plan to widen access to federally insured mortgages without tapping into taxpayer money.

NYTimes: A Quiet Dealmaker Works for Pained Homeowners

I like Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) a lot. He's a lawyer, a West Point graduate, and was an Army Ranger for 12 years. He's one of the few members of Congress who can ask a question (most of them just give long rambling speeches and annoy me no end!). He opposed the war from the start (like I said, he's smart.) He's a pretty standard New England liberal; here are his positions & votes on some key issues.

Drawbacks as a candidate: Rhode Island would probably vote Democratic anyway, as will the rest of New England. And he's not the most charismatic guy in the world. For evidence of this, watch him deliver a Democratic response to a Bush speech last September:

September 13, 2007 (Less info)
Senator Jack Reed delivered the Democratic response to President Bush's address to the nation on Iraq.