Let’s face it (no pun intended). For many who make their choices for selection of anything—from local school board member to president, image has a strong influence on that choice.
Senator John Kerry picked Senator John Edwards as his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. It’s a smooth move for Senator Kerry. The senator from North Carolina is easy-on-the-eyes, telegenic—they’re not the same thing—and presents a far less dour, unsettling, elitist presence than does the senator from Massachusetts. (As for Senator Edwards’ political profile, I’ll have to do some research and post on it. In the past, I paid attention mostly to the ever-changing Democrat primary front-runners: Kerry, Dean and Clark, but little to the others. Heck, I wasn’t going to vote for any of them.)
Senator Edwards’ above-mentioned attributes present a stark contrast to those of Vice President Richard Cheney’s. The vice president is older, has a pace-maker, isn’t as pretty and has recently—and hilariously—displayed a certain occasional lack of decorum. Whether the latter was justified or not doesn’t matter.
Like many all around the blog world, I wonder whether President George W. Bush has a corresponding vice-presidential announcement to drop on the American public in the next few months.
Between Vice President Cheney’s health woes, doctor problems and his recent expression of frustration toward Senator Leahy, could there be a close-to-the-vest plan for a new running mate?
If so, who would that running mate be?
There is much GOP political salivating over the prospect of President Bush picking National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as the replacement running mate. Dr. Rice strikes me as a steely customer: extremely intelligent, cool-headed, knowledgeable. And, of course, her image benefits rival, even surpass those of Senator Edwards.
Is Dr. Rice VP material? I have expressed my doubts about that before. (This is due to her lack of high-level executive experience, her stint as provost at Stanford University notwithstanding; had she come back to California last year to run for governor, however I would have voted for her in a heartbeat. She’s more qualified for that position than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is, and he’s doing a decent job.)
I’m not necessarily suggesting that President Bush change his running mate simply for the sake of countering the image potential of his rival’s running mate, just doing a little Tuesday-morning speculating. As a matter of fact, I hope he doesn’t change. But you can be sure that all of his options are being weighed by himself and his advisers.
