The Department of Silly Talk

1. MSNBC has found a list of potential vice presidential candidates. Expect to see a lot of this – a media that is unable to cover issues in any depth will fall back on fluffery to fill that yawning hole called air time. With campaigns they do horse-race, and in the interludes, they do VP choices.

Anyway, some of this might be the Obama campaign doing it’s test-marketing, hoisting up flags to see if a breeze catches one. Some of it might be seriously considered. Some of it may be plain nonsense.

Supposed names on the long short-list: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Ted Strickland, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Jim Webb, Bill Nelson, Jack Reed, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Tom Daschle, and Sam Nunn.

Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, Biden and Dodd are obvious no-go’s. Clinton would overshadow Obama, Kerry and Edwards are good at losing, Biden will talk our heads off without ever saying anything, and Dodd is too liberal. That leaves Bayh, Sebelius, Strickland, Warner, Kaine, Webb, Nelson, Reed and Nunn (who has the obvious advantage of being a crypto-Republican, much like Clinton).

Who the heck knows – it will probably end up being someone not on the list. One thing for bloggers and commenters to take note of: Brian Schweitzer is not on the list. Not now, not anytime. He won’t be asked, is not seriously considered. Not gonna happen.

2. Wiley at Big Sky Cairn is urging that Mike Lange run a write-in campaign for U.S. Senate against Max Baucus. As Jay Stevens notes, it’s a good idea because it means that Lange would get beaten by Bob Kelleher twice in the same year.

But it’s also telling. What has Lange got to offer? He’s not thoughtful or terribly smart, and is brash and vulgar to boot. But he’s got appeal over on that side. There’s a moral here, one to be absorbed, and I’m thick as hell. I don’t know why they think this way, I don’t know what they possibly see in this guy. I’m obviously missing something, probably something base and obvious. But I don’t see it.

Enlighten me, please, someone.

3. Max Baucus is not going to debate Bob Kelleher. Says Max, “I am not running against anybody. I am seeking just to renew my six-year contract with Montana voters. I am going to work just as hard as I would ordinarily.” (I don’t know what to make of that cryptic last part.)

It’s probably a smart move on Max’s part. If he did debate Kelleher, they would look like (bi) polar opposites, with Kelleher assuming a progressive stance on most issues, Max being more right wing. And that is probably the reason for no debate. Max doesn’t want be exposed as a faux liberal. He would be the first to remind us that in politics, perceptions are reality.