Submitted to a Candid World

Do you hear what I hear?

Frankly, I expected Obama to have picked a vice president by now.  Same with John McCain.  But if Obama’s waiting for just the right moment, that moment may well be now.  I’ve said before that Obama needs to focus on policy, not just to make this finally a substantive election, but also because it’s the one element of his campaign that’s lacking.  However, due to the media’s self-created, and now well-chronicled problem of “Obama fatigue,” taking the stand in defense of his hard policies may not have the effect it once could have.  How, then, to redefine the election on policy terms, instead of letting it continue to degenerate into a spin cycle, while simultaneously recovering some of his lost momentum?

Enter the mythical “Obama VP,” long-prophesied, who will, any day now, emerge from the waiting wings of the Democratic party.  The VP is typically the “attack dog” – saying the nasty things that the candidates themselves can’t say for fear of looking like a jerk.  It might be time to reconceptualize the role of the running mate, though, at least where Barack Obama is concerned.  Whoever he picks as his running mate/VP will outstrip Obama in experience, if not name recognition, and thus lend a trusted, well-informed, tried & true voice to the campaign.  Most importantly, though, it’ll be a fresh face (it won’t be Hillary).  If the media is waiting for a new issue and a new face to cover – since Obama is temporarily “overplayed,” and McCain is just… ugh – Obama’s VP could be the face to recover the media’s attention, and use that attention to refocus on hard Democratic politics.  None too soon.