[Erin] Vice presidential chatter

As a Floridian, I'm glad Chain-Gang Charlie has little national support. I prefer him where he is now. Although his pandering to McCain on offshore drilling has me a bit annoyed.

My top 3 VP picks for each side:

McCain:
Tim Pawlenty
Mark Sanford
Sarah Palin

Obama:
Kathleen Sebelius
Ed Rendell
Joe Manchin

Now, Manchin may sound like a complete left-field pick. But he's the extremely popular moderate governor (74% approval rating) of an Appalachian state, and an anti-abortion Catholic (in WV!).

As for Nunn, he brings solid national security credentials to the ticket, and possibly, combined with Bob Barr's run, puts Georgia into play.

If Obama's problem is too much charisma, Sam Nunn might help.

I can imagine people all over the country hearing that name and saying "Who?" (if they're under forty) or "Huh?" (if they're Democrats).

Obama needs to convince people that they can trust him, but boring them to tears with Nunn is not the answer. Either Jim Webb or Joe Biden would serve him well; I like Webb because as a former Republican, he would stand in for millions of Americans crossing the aisle, and could be a useful sounding boarding and naysayer to the top dog when he starts getting a little too lefty.

McCain will probably end up with Romney, because he really, really needs the cash.

My brother, who lives in Atlanta, once gave serious consideration to hiring on as Sam Nunn's personal assistant. It wasn't so much that the job appealed to him. He just liked the idea of having his resume include "Second to Nunn."

Forgive me for butting in here as a non-USian, but I do have a question: When last was there a running mate (far less a succesful one) who had been running his own campaign for the top slot earlier on in the same cycle? No doubt there will have been some, but off the top of my head, it seems not to be the tradition for candidates to propose a veep they had been campaigning against just months earlier. Sorry, Hillary, John, Huck, and Mitt.

I was going to mention GHW Bush too.

Heck, he used to call Reagan's policies 'voodoo economics' during the primary.

Apparently, getting the co-star spot on the ticket changed his views.