VP Odds and Ends (place your bets)

Barack Obama has his month of news all mapped out. This week he announced his fund raising numbers in which he and the DNC collectively raised $74 mil. That was his major news for the week. The next two weeks will be dominated by talk of his over seas visits.

That leaves one week in August before the Olympics start and dominate the news cycles. That would be the perfect week to unveil his VP choice.

A lot has happened since I last speculated on VP's. First and foremost Jim Webb withdrew his name. John Edwards took himself out and put himself back in. So where does that leave his prospects? He has a lot of great choices, but these are the ones I would put money on:

1. Joe Biden 3 to 1. With the drop out of Jim Webb, Joe gives him some of the foreign policy gravitas that Webb brought. A major benefit is that his seat would remain a safe Democratic seat if he were to resign his position.
   
2. Tim Kaine 5 to 1. Well liked governor of Virginia. Would help with that crucial state.
3. Hillary Clinton 8 to 1. Bill and his associations would be a distraction in both the campaign and in the administration. Would have been higher but her supporters have seemingly coalesced behind Obama.
   
4. Kathy Sebelius 10-1. Well liked Governor in one of the few states that Obama has no chance in. Ideologically she is perfectly suited to Barack but maybe too much of a foreign policy lightweigh.
5. Evan Bayh 15 to 1. Former Governor and current Senator of a key swing state. His biggest drawback is that his Senate seat would flip Republican otherwise he would be higher.
6. Wes Clark 18 to 1. Nice offset to McCain's military experience. His comments on McCain's service while accurate was perhaps too blunt and hurt his chances.
7. John Edwards 20 to 1. He has some credibility to the working man. He probably doesn't help with a single state.
8. John Kerry 25 to 1. Before you laugh at this choice, remember that this guy got more votes than any Democrat in history.
9. Bill Richardson 30 to 1. Lot's of experience, would positively bring in New Mexico. and help with Hispanics across the country. Hurt by some of his blatant pandering from his primary campaign. He made incredulous after incredulous comment and did not seem like a serious candidate.
10. Michael Bloomberg 50 to 1. Brings tons of executive experience from both private industry and from running NYC. If the election is about the economy, who would be a better choice.

Chuck Hagel is a nice choice but too Republican outside of Iraq. Chris Dodd is probably too liberal to be an asset. Al Gore- dream on.

On the Republican side, John McCain is likely to do something completely unconventional and make a huge mistake in the vetting process. Conventional wisdom I would give the following odds:

1. Mitt Romney 2 to 1. Two flip floppers for the price of one
2. Tim Pawlenty 4 to 1. Conventional wisdom has him pretty high, my guess is McCain goes elsewhere.
3. Rob Portman 8 to 1. Insiders favorite candidate
4. Charlie Crist 15 to 1. Possibly too gay for Republicans, otherwise a fine choice
5. Joe Lieberman 20 to 1. Wow. How much fun would this be?
6. Tom Ridge 25 to 1. Too moderate for the base.
7. Mike Huckabee 35 to 1. Great for evangelists, Rush Limbaugh's head finally explodes.
8. Condoleeza Rice 50 to 1. Probably helps the ticket more than anyone unless people finally realize she is grossly inept and utterly incompetent.
9. Bobby Jindal 75 to 1. Hard to make the case Obama is too inexperienced and then bring in a 37 year old VP despite the fact he is the right wing darling of the moment.
10. Fred Thompson 100-1. Conservative darling. If he named him late enough he would only have to work hard for 2 months. Even Fred could do that.