NPR's Ron Elving examines the prospects for VP selections this summer. The initial copy focuses on potential female running mates, but finds few that wouldn't offer more political problems than solutions. Then consideration turns to a minority candidate:
It does not get much easier if you give up on finding a woman and go looking for a non-Caucasian prospect in the current GOP. One who got invited to the Memorial Day Barbecue and Running Mate Sweepstakes at McCain's ranch last month was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He is getting a look right now because he is precociously bright, Asian American (his parents came to Lousiana from India) and a bona fide phenomenon in Republican politics. He ran Louisiana's health care system and its largest state university before becoming a congressman and then governor. And he is still just 36.I submit that McCain has a golden opportunity, if he likes the cut of Jindal's jib, to make himself King and Kingmaker in one move. Should he select Jindal (who has some obvious appeal), he can present this move as coming from the last of the Rockefeller Republicans, grooming a new generation of GOP leaders. In other words, it'd be like saying, "I'm going to take him under my wing and make sure that he knows how to lead this country."
Right now the Repubicans have no prominent African-American officeholders, in Congress or the states. So this is the best way to advertise an interest in diversity. But Jindal is exactly half McCain's age, which may only make the issue more visible. Can McCain knock Obama's youth and inexperience and pick a running mate a decade younger?
Just a thought, fit for debate.
The article also links to Ken Rudin's analysis of Obama's potential VP taps (Hil Clinton tops his short list, of course).
