#30 Ted Strickland Says He Won't Run

It wasn't quite William Tecumseh Sherman up there saying, "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve." But both Sherman and Governor Ted Strickland are native Ohioans, and apparently neither hankered/hankers to run for the highest or second-highest office in the land. News reports this evening indicate that Strickland has removed himself from consideration for the VP slot on an Obama ticket.

From a mathematical point of view, Strickland was my first choice to serve as the VP candidate, since he would have an excellent chance to carry Ohio's 20 electoral votes into the Democratic column in November. Well, there's still Sherrod Brown, a longtime Ohio representative in the House of Representatives and a first term Senator elected in 2006. With a Democratic governor, the Democrats would hold Brown's seat in their senate majority should Brown become VP. But, despite his more conservative credentials than Obama has (and who in the Senate does not have more conservative credentials than Obama), Brown is not well known outside of Ohio.

Governors tend to become known, since there are only fifty of them, and anytime something happens in a state (hurricanes, earthquakes, whatever), the governor is always quoted for news reports. Similarly, long time senate members, and especially senate leaders, become well known because their names frequently pop up in the news. So do the names of senators who do notorious things. Like tapdancing in a men's room stall in the Minneapolis airport. The leaders and the shakers may be mentioned as possible running-mates; the dancers, probably not.

A senator who is new to his/her senate position but who has served in other public capacities; a senator who has switched parties in the past for ideological reasons rather than reasons of expediency; a senator who has defeated an incumbent in a nationally publicized senate race where the incumbent opens mouth and inserts foot (George Allen anyone?); a senator who makes the rounds of talk shows and is otherwise interviewed (for a newly published book, for example, something along the lines of, oh, say, "A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America," published last month); a senator whose background places him/her in a clear position to counteract the other party's candidate (to counter John McCain, for example, a candidate who is a Naval Academy graduate and a former marine in Viet Nam); a senator from a state with a Democratic governor who would appoint a Democratic replacement should the senator be elected VP: this is the kind of senator who might serve as a VP candidate, and might appeal to significant segments of the American populace. And it's even better if he represents a state that has been pretty strongly Republican in the past but seems to be moving toward the Democrats recently. Such a candidate might be able to swing the state to the Blue side come November.

We should look to see if there's any senator who fits that description....

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