If he chooses Reed, many people may conflate him, at least subliminally (which is where a lot of American though takes place), with the dreadful Harry Reid. Hope so, anyway.
Given Jack Reed’s attributes, he may outqualify the Candidate himself.
I think people have missed it entirely. Obama’s VP candidate will be the man who has grown larger, even as the initial letters of his name have grown smaller: algore
Weil I would be a bit disappoionted it was not Biden who would be the most fun. Still Obama picking a US Senator would undermine change. Obama pickinga New Englander would not help him where he needs the most help.
2 dark horses that nobody has mentioned...Barney Frank and Maxine Waters.
Jack Reed was a Ranger, not a Marine. In any case he’s a leftist with terrible foreign policy instincts.
He is boring, as you say.
He is further left than Bayh or Kaine.
His home state is tiny and not a swing state at all, therefore he brings Obama nothing electorally, whereas Indiana or especially Virginia would be important pickups for Obama.
He has much more experience than Obama, so picking Reed wouldn't hurt him in any way - but it wouldn't really help.
Obama-Kennedy '08!
I don’t read Obama’s state about “who complements my strengths” the same as Kristol. It sounds to me like a man who cannot acknowledge he has weaknesses. Most people would say they want someone nearby to buttress up (or complement) their weaknesses, not their strengths. Or am I just psychologically analyzing him as the rank amateur I am and displaying my own weaknesses?
Reed is on record as saying he wasn’t interested in the vice-presidency and would decline if offered.
Virginia's James Webb would be another Democrat I would put in that category. Former Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, and a writer of some pretty good books, including Born Fighting, and Fields of Fire. Thankfully he said he would not be interested in being Obama’s VP.
Hussein needs to pick Robert KKK Byrd for his gravitas!
I can’t imagine any currently serving democrat in congress being an asset to the BO campaign. Are there any talented demo govenors out there? That would be a defensible choice. However, what intelligent person from anywhere would want to be hung out for certain failure by putting their name with BO? Unless that person could take over the POTUS spot campaign when (not if) BO falls. If I were the DNC, I would demand BO take Hillmonster as his VP and shut up. Or someone with a huge ego, skilled at self-deception, in a position of power - Dean? Would that be a coup or what?
I doubt anybody’s been beating down the door begging to be VP. When he looked like a winner, were they ready to walk behind the great one? I doubt it. Now that he looks like a loser, I just don’t see anyone in the house/senate sacrificing a career for this loser. That’s probably why they keep talking up Kaine. What’s it worth to be on the ticket???
Anyway, Reed is more of a regular guy than St. Paul's and Yale product Sheldon Whitehouse. Whatever else you say about the guy, you have to give him that.
After graduating from West Point and receiving an active duty commission in the United States Army, Reed attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he received a Masters of Public Policy. Reed, an Army Ranger and a paratrooper, served in the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon Leader, a Company Commander, and a Battalion Staff Officer. He returned to West Point in 1978 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences.
Reed resigned from the Army as a Captain in 1979 and enrolled at Harvard Law School. In 1982, he graduated from Harvard and served a year as an associate with the Washington, DC law firm of Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan. In 1983, he returned to Rhode Island and joined the Providence law firm of Edwards and Angell.