If Hillary is the Democrat nominee, who might her VP be? Does it really matter?

[henster]

Possible nominees
- Mark Warner
- Martin Heinrich
- Sherrod Brown
- Julian Castro
- Steve Beshear
- Martin O'Malley
- Tim Kaine

All bring something different to the table but does it really matter?

What about her stealing Charlie Christ's small business-owning (language school), fluently Spanish speaking Miami resident Lieutenant Governor candidate, Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, in case he were to lose the Governor election this fall?

Would come in handy in the crucial battleground state of Florida, as well as in other crucial battleground states with a high latino population including Colorado (!), Nevada and Arizona.

   

From YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yGHgOpA9EQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPiKVpS8v3I (from 1 minutes on)

Perhaps not? But it would certainly be a very bold, daring and interesting choice. Not just because she's a woman, or having started a small business herself, but also because she can potentially reach the millions of currently non-voting latino population (especially in states like Arizona and Texas where hardly any latino vote) due to her, as a teacher in Spanish speaks Spanish fluently herself, unlike Julian Castro. There's a huge difference between knowing a little bit of Spanish, like Tim Kaine (who has an awful accent on top of that) to having a natural relationship with the language like Annette. Tim would never be able to convince millions and millions of non-voting latinos to turn out to the polls. Annette possibly would, although there are never any guarantees, as this is, after all, completely unchartered territory.

Would she be "un problema grande", in her own words, for the Republican ticket?

If she were to win the LG job, she might turn out even more attractive though. I just thought it would be a little bit crude to steal her away from Christ lol.

She's more of a Senate candidate and a Lt. Gov has never been picked as a VP it's a useless position with no responsibilities.

[Blue3]

-Martin O'Malley is boring and has no vision

I think O'Malley has more vision than most actually. He's one of the very few Democratic Governors who's got a lot progressive stuff done in his state during the past decade or so actually. Executive action always trumps visionary ideas anyways, in my view at least.
However I do agree that he's not all that great in interview situations. He's much better when he's prepared his stuff/speech.

O'Malley hasn't been leading his legislature, they've been leading him and he's been rubber-stamping.

[henster]

-Martin O'Malley is boring and has no vision

I think O'Malley has more vision than most actually. He's one of the very few Democratic Governors who's got a lot progressive stuff done in his state during the past decade or so actually. Executive action always trumps visionary ideas anyways, in my view at least.
However I do agree that he's not all that great in interview situations. He's much better when he's prepared his stuff/speech.

O'Malley hasn't been leading his legislature, they've been leading him and he's been rubber-stamping.

Exactly any Dem in his place could claim the record he has gay marriage, marijuana decriminalization, the Dream Act, the gun control bill all came out of the legislature with little effort from him. I'd be more impressed if he could do all those things in a state like Minnesota or Colorado and still stay popular.

[ShadowRocket]

I'd agree that Bennett would be her best choice, but as has already been pointed out, he'll probably be out of contention due to likely facing a competitve reelection campaign.

So I guess Warner or Kaine would be the frontrunners. Heinrich or Brown could be possibilities but we'd probably lose their seats because Martinez and Kasich would likely be the ones respectively appointing their replacements.

I could see Tester or Merkley being dark horses.

[Mister Mets]

I'd agree that Bennett would be her best choice, but as has already been pointed out, he'll probably be out of contention due to likely facing a competitve reelection campaign.

So I guess Warner or Kaine would be the frontrunners. Heinrich or Brown could be possibilities but we'd probably lose their seats because Martinez and Kasich would likely be the ones respectively appointing their replacements.

I could see Tester or Merkley being dark horses.

I'd imagine that Democrats would decide it's worth risking/ losing a Senate seat to get the best Vice President.

Obama considered Tim Kaine a potential running mate even though it would have elected the Republican Lieutenant Governor. He appointed Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Secretary even though it meant Jan Brewer became Governor.

Republican Governors may not want fights over replacing someone from their state who has just been elevated to national office.

[King]

Julian Castro or Cory Booker might matter, and I can't even say if that's positive or negative.

Otherwise it won't.

[ShadowRocket]

I'd agree that Bennett would be her best choice, but as has already been pointed out, he'll probably be out of contention due to likely facing a competitve reelection campaign.

So I guess Warner or Kaine would be the frontrunners. Heinrich or Brown could be possibilities but we'd probably lose their seats because Martinez and Kasich would likely be the ones respectively appointing their replacements.

I could see Tester or Merkley being dark horses.

I'd imagine that Democrats would decide it's worth risking/ losing a Senate seat to get the best Vice President.

Obama considered Tim Kaine a potential running mate even though it would have elected the Republican Lieutenant Governor. He appointed Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Secretary even though it meant Jan Brewer became Governor.

Republican Governors may not want fights over replacing someone from their state who has just been elevated to national office.

I'm not so sure. In the likely scenario of a closely divided or tied Senate, just one seat can make a huge difference. Unless it is looking like Senate Democrats are looking at a decent amount of gains, I don't see her taking that risk.

[Mister Mets]

The main way a veep would matter a lot in a positive way would be if they really hurt the other side's credibility. For example, if John McCain had agreed to be Kerry's running mate in 2004.

There aren't many prominent Republicans with that level of name recognition, but if a Brian Sandoval or Rob Portman agreed to be on a unity ticket with Hillary because of their objections to the Republican nominee, it would be a big deal.

It's highly unlikely for all the reasons we don't see unity tickets, but this would be something that matters.

[Mr. Smith]

What about Jay Nixon of Missouri? His handling of Ferguson could be a pretty good booster.

[Panda Express]

What about Jay Nixon of Missouri? His handling of Ferguson could be a pretty good booster.

Booster for the GOP maybe.

[SWE]

What about Jay Nixon of Missouri? His handling of Ferguson could be a pretty good booster.

what

[solarstorm]

I can't see anyone other than Castro being nominated. Sorry guys.
Maaaaaybe Schweitzer only in case he won't have challenged her in the primaries, but he certainly will.

[politicus]

What about Jay Nixon of Missouri? His handling of Ferguson could be a pretty good booster.

If that's sarcasm its too early to do that after 11 posts, you haven't earned the necessary credibility yet. If not, then you need your head examined.

[Mr. Smith]

Oh so there's a MARK as to when sarcasm is allowed.

No it wasn't,but I wasn't exactly fully awake.

Nonetheless I stand by that at least before Ferguson, Nixon would be a good idea. And he'd still a better choice than a lot of the people on the list currently.

Also if the conservative machine overreached on the matter, touting the response with the Highway Patrol just MIGHT bring out the Black Belt and swing some Southern States back to Clinton.

The ticket could at least try for a sort of Clinton/Gore or more accurately [given how old Hillary will be] Truman/Barkley kind of synergy rather than the usual "Pick-a-Northern-pick-a-Southern" strategy.

He'd certainly be a better idea than Beshear (too Conservative) or Castro (That'd be like a modern Ferraro, great ideas and articulation,but little experience and the right could call it Tokenism.) or Mark Warner (the Washington insidery-vibe would do someone like Clinton no good)

However I concede that first and foremost CLinton might very well be strong enough to simply pull a 1988 by picking some kind of partisan [or perceived partisan] and just focus the campaign entirely on just calling the opponent "a conservative", followed by marking a few small differences from Obama.

[King]

It will never happen, but rather than focus on a VP, Hillary (and all Presidential campaigns from henceforth) should instead try more to pump up a Speaker of the House 'candidate' to pair with her election.

[Bureaucat]

I think Tim Kaine would be a great VP pick, Beshear is way too old and too conservative for a national Dem ticket I don't know why people even include him.

The demographics will be different in 2016. The democrats can't win with only 38-40% of the white vote as the minority vote will be less.

The percentage of the votes cast by whites has decreased in every Presidential Election since 1992.  It didn't start with Barack Obama, and it's not stopping anytime soon. More white voters are dying off than are being replaced by young voters. The white percentage is averaging about a 2% decline with every four year Presidential election.  According to Dave Wasserman of the Cook Report, the minority population as a whole is increasing about 1% a year, which means that with younger voters it's growing twice as fast as the rate among registered voters.  Some of that is illegal aliens, but the bulk of it are native born children, which means the overall rate of minorities among registered voters will only increase over time. According to Karl Rove, with the rate of growth among minority groups, if the GOP does not increase its percentage of the minority vote, they would need to win 62.5% of the white vote to eke out a narrow win in 2016. Reagan in 1984, who won the highest percentage of white vote ever recorded according to Rove only won 63% of the white vote.  It shows how the country has changed demographically over the past 30 years.

[Panhandle Progressive]

Should be one of these ten, an educated guess says one of the 3 Virginians:

Booker, Cory
Brown, Anthony
Cuomo, Andrew
Dean, Howard
Kaine, Tim (VA)
McAuliffe, Terry (VA)
Newsom, Gavin
Patrick, Deval
Richardson, Bill
Warner, Mark (VA)