I don't like Vice-Presidential nomination diaries as a rule, but I have an idea that I haven't seen offered before, and I offer it like a dandelion seed upon the wind in the hope that some fortunate breeze may waft it into Barack Obama's commodious ears.
I've argued before that Gary Hart should be high on the list of people that Obama consider for VP. I don't think that Obama needs to be bolstered in areas that others do, but if you think so, please note that he has experience, including massive foreign policy experience, to burn, and knows Washington as well as you could want. He's a Westerner, eloquent, a strong fighter, a HuffPo blogger (!), and I don't think people are that exercised about the Donna Rice thing anymore. (Or, if they are, they'll have to deal with John McCain's "Cindy thing.")
The problem? He's too old. He's McCain's age. Declining faculties and all that, though I don't see evidence of it in Hart. More practically, among other things, he would not be well placed to run in 2016.
Yeah, that's a problem, I've been thinking, until I just thought of a solution:
Say, explicitly, that he will only serve for one term.
Here's a problem we have: in the minds of Democratic politicians and activists, Barack Obama is being put in the position of picking the 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate right now, at a time when he has other fish to fry (like an election to win) and when he doesn't have as much information as he'll have in 2012 about who would be good for the position.
So: don't make the choice. Let it be known that the VP for his second term will be chosen in 2012. Gary Hart will serve for only one term. And then, do you know what time it is? AUDITION TIME!
That's right: everyone who would like to become Obama's second-term VP in 2013, and the presumptive front-runner for 2016, has to be very, very cooperative with Senator Obama over the first three years of his Administration, because they know that they are fighting for pole position. That is only going to bolster Obama's power and effectiveness in his first term.
Yes, many will end up disappointed, but they'll get over it. Politics is a crapshoot, after all.
I've favored someone like Hart (or Gore) for a while on the merits. But now I also favor them because they allow Obama to choose the likely 2016 nominee at a time when he'll have a lot more information than he does now about who would best deserve it. So: Gary Hart for one term only!
(Psssst: The convention is in Denver, and Colorado is a swing state.)