I always thought Dodd would be a great Veep for Obama--big head of white hair to add wisdom, clearly ready for the job, good national security and domestic policy cred and, most important, given the veep candidate's traditional role very good on the attack and able to do it without coming off like a complete asshole, which is a rare skill. (Most of the time, a campaign doesn't even care about the "not coming off like an asshole" part as long as the veeptobe is good on the attacking. But its a big bonus.)

The only down-sides are that he doesn't bring in any states we don't already have in the bag and, more seriously, that Countrywide thing.

So far, the Countrywide thing sounds like just another instance the MSM breathlessly reporting that a Democratic politician was caught shamelessly engaging in a normal everyday economic transaction, which, as we know is inherently suspect because Democrats aren't supposed to have personal economic lives. Still . . . well, that's why they vet.

Dodd? The netroots are going to faint at this prospect. That's almost like vetting Feingold.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=5351864&page=1

Uh oh, looks like cut-and-run Obama might have some more nuancing ahead.

In light of his "information" that caused him to flip on FISA, who's going to believe he will actually do what he says on Iraq.

Obama is not to be trusted.

Words and deeds, words and deeds.

Dodd's been my VP choice from the beginning.

If he was from Virginia, Missouri, or Ohio, he'd be a complete slam dunk, but he's still a solid choice.

According to a new Zogby poll, Senator Obama is ahead in arizona, this is great news...

And I also would like to point out that Wolfson is not part of the Obama campaign, and i doubt he has any information about who is being vetted. There are no reports that Wolfson has been talking to Caroline Kennedy or any one else one for that matter...

Former Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said on Fox News last night that the Obama campaign is not vetting Hillary for vice president, to the best of his knowledge.

I would bet that upon taking his job at Fox, Wolfson would have been effectively cutoff from any meaningful information from with the Hillary camp. I'm willing to guarantee that should Wolfson get the scoop that Hillary was close to getting the VP nod, she would instantly be removed from consideration.

McCain Hits Obama For Missing Vote That He Missed, Too Good work on CNN's part for spotting this: John McCain has been criticizing Barack Obama's national security credentials for missing the September 2007 vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment. But McCain, who has missed the vast majority of Senate votes since he began running for president, also skipped out on that vote.

Also, at the time of that vote it was reported that Obama in addition to being in NH, was way-layed with the flu or another stomach ailment, and wasn't really available to come to Washington - though I assume that his vote been crucial to passage he might have been able to make or they could have delayed the vote for him.

I find it puzzling that the MSM isn't making a bigger deal out of McCain taking weekends off from the campaign, and ALSO skipping important Senate votes. Obviously any candidate for President is going to miss some votes, but if it seems that they are missing the votes because they only want to work 5 days-a-week and they've decided that their Senate work will have to put on hold so those 5 days all fall during the work week, that is clearly short changing the citizens of Arizona.

i'm putting my money on chet edwards.

rationale: geographic balance, record of winning in gop territory, strong military support, in line with obama on other issues, white male in his late 50s.

sebelius, richardson offer one too many firsts; webb, strickland and rendell have all pulled themselves from the process; warner is needed to gain a senate seat; control of the senate is critical, so dodd and biden, like webb, are staying put; hagel disagrees on every position obama holds besides the war, but he will pop up in the cabinet; powell is too tainted by iraq tho he will likely pop up in the cabinet; bayh is too young; j.edwards won't run a second time as vp, but shoudl get new cabinet level position on poverty; clinton brings too much bill baggage, will likely get debt relief and a first look at a supreme court slot. could be another sleeper out there with military experience that i've missed, but i think cats like clarke and zinni are already out the mix.

thoughts?

Uh oh, conspiracy alert!

So who exactly is Obama going to talk to if these military leaders are Bush sock puppets? You are doubting military commander's honesty. You are calling them liars.

No. These are the guys who know exactly what is happening and they say it would be a disaster to pull out based on Obama's plans.

Obama cannot be trusted to do the right thing.

after barack's fisa flip-flop, dodd for veep would do more to sully my respect for dodd than it would to help me get past the soul-sucking pain and violent nausea of having to vote for obama to vote against mccain. but that doesn't mean it wouldn't help a little. since at this point barack has to win back my vote against mccain, picking dodd as his running mate would be a step in the right direction. (and even though the bill obama helped get passed does IRREPARABLE harm - to the country, not merely my opinion of obama which was only confirmed by his show of cowardice/capitulation/complicity wrt the bush administration - i'd hope dodd would attach some strings re the restoration of the bill of rights.) but i'd only believe it if i saw it.