Who will be Barack Obama’s running mate?

Gary Jacobsen
Published: June 3, 2008

By mid-summer, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, 46, will have to select a running mate who shares his vision for the future and who also will appeal to a broad section of the electorate.

That is the only way he will prevail over Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, 71, in the November elections.

The criteria that Senator Obama will utilize in selecting his vice president include age, experience, gender, effectiveness in office and the geographic area that he or she represents. Fortunately, many qualified candidates are available. Five immediately come to mind:

• Anthony Zinni, 64. This former Marine Corps four-star general was decorated for valor in South Vietnam and later had a wide range of command and senior staff responsibilities, culminating in Central
Command (CENTCOM) from 1997-2000. He has extensive experience in Middle Eastern affairs and at one point was this government’s special envoy to the Israelis and Palestinians. Though he initially supported George Bush’s run for the presidency in 2000, Gen. Zinni is now highly critical of Bush and the war in Iraq. He currently is the president of International Operations for MIC Industries. Most people consider him politically independent.

• Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, 65. Senator Nelson formerly served in the Florida House from 1972 to 1978. He went on to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 2000 with 52 percent of the vote and re-elected in 2006 with more than 60 percent of the vote. He served in the U. S. Army reserves from 1965 to 1971. The nonpartisan Congress.org rates him as the seventh most effective legislator in the U. S. Senate. Many Americans will remember Sen. Nelson as the second sitting politician to serve on a space mission (Space Shuttle, 1986).

• Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, 52. Senator Landrieu would bring both gender and geographic balance to the Obama ticket. She started in politics at the age of 23, when she was elected to the Louisiana
State Legislature. In 1996 she was elected to the U. S. Senate. She won re-election to that office in 2002 with 52 percent of the vote. Senator Landrieu was considered a member of the “gang of 14”— moderate senators that prevented Republicans from changing filibuster rules pertaining to judicial nominations. She currently serves on the Appropriations, Energy and Small Business committees. The nonpartisan Congress.org rates her as the tenth most effective legislator in the U. S. Senate.

• Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-KS, 60. Governor Sebelius entered politics at the age of 26 by being elected to the Kansas legislature, where she served for eight years. She then went on to be the state’s insurance commissioner for another eight years. She was elected governor in 2002 with 53 percent of the vote and re-elected in 2006 with 58 percent of the vote. She favors strict gun-control laws and improvements in education. An early supporter of Barack Obama, she was named by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the five best governors in the United States.

• Rep. David Obey, D-WI, 69. Representative Obey served in the Wisconsin Assembly from 1963 to 1969. Then, at the age of 30, he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. He has won every re-election since with considerable margins. Currently he serves as the Chairman of the prestigious House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Obey was once a Republican but left the party at the time of the Army-McCarthy hearings. He is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq.

The nonpartisan Congress.org rates him as the fifth most effective legislator in the U. S. House of Representatives.

Gary Jacobsen lives in Woodbridge.