Welcome to part 2 of The Veepstakes here at eyeonobama.com.  You can get caught up and check out part 1 here.

On deck tonight, we have another Republican, a couple of Governors and a high profile Senator, plus a surprise or two.

With that, here are a few more potential Vice Presidents for Barack Obama...

Chuck Hagel: Hey, I'm not the only one!  Lanny Davis of the Washington Post mentioned Chuck Hagel a while back and I absolutely love this idea, Obama/Hagel.  I know, I know, he's a Republican.  And I know he has some conservative thoughts, but conservative thought is not inherently evil, Republican thought is.  The Senator from Nebraska represents conservative thought, not Republican thought. 

I disagree with a lot of Chuck Hagel's policies, but he is a much better Democrat than Nebraska's actual Democratic Senator, Ben Nelson.  Don't get me started on that guy. 

Oops, too late: I voted for Ben Nelson in 2000 when I was a Cornhusker at the University of Nebraska.  I only voted for him because the more of the two evils in this situation was way more.  Don Stenberg, the Republican Senate candidate was closely aligned with Bush and he was a right-wing nut job, so much of a right-wing nut job that Nebraskans didn't even like him...scary. 

So my vote for Nelson was a defensive vote, which at times I have regretted.  He is the worst.  Actually, the other B. Nelson in the Senate, Bill Nelson of Florida, he's pretty bad too.  Now that I think about, the two worst Democratic Senators in the country are the B. Nelsons.  Thanks for leaving the party Joe Lieberman!  Now we only need to remember one name!

Back to Hagel; one of the great things about him is his courage.  He had enough of it to be one of the first Republicans to openly speak out against the war in Iraq.  He has been a thorn in the side of The Bush Administration since then and his style is very reminiscent of John McCain before McCain dropped the "maverick" label and became Bush: The Third Term.  

This will never happen, but the idea of reaching across the aisle for a VP is not new.  Lincoln selected Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from the south. 

Kathleen Sebelius: Speaking of reaching across the aisle, the current Governor of Kansas is the ultimate uniter.  Her Lieutenant Governor, Mark Parkinson, is a former Republican who Sebelius talked into becoming a Democrat in order to join her on the ticket.

Parkinson is one of the many former Republicans in Kansas who have become uncomfortable with the conservative wing of the party taking over the GOP.  He is neither the first or last in a trickle of Kansas Republicans who are jumping ship and joining the Democrats like they were Clinton superdelegates switching to Obama.

Sebelius is seen as the catalyst for this Democratic conversion taking place in Kansas.  Much like Gov. Brian Schweitzer in Montana, she is appealing to Republicans who would rather figure out how to improve the education system and build roads than engage in shouting matches over issues like abortion and evolution.

Kathleen Sebelius would certainly fit right into Obama's message of unity, with a proven track record of reaching across party lines and unifying what was once a once fiercely divided state.

Despite being a popular name to throw around in the "VP game" Sebelius comes up short in the foreign policy department.  Up against the foreign policy credentials of John McCain an Obama/Sebelius ticket would be a tough sell.  Additionally, she does not provide much of a geographical balance to the Senator from Illinois.

Bill Richardson: If you read this post regularly, you may know that the Governor from New Mexico is one of my top two picks for Obama's VP. 

Richardson would balance the ticket in a number of ways.

As a governor he provides executive experience.  As an ambassador he provides better foreign policy credentials than almost any other Democrat.  As a New Mexican he provides a fantastic geographic balance.  In fact, he may provide the best possible geographic balance for Obama in 2008.

Howard Dean, the DNC chairman has made it clear that he believes Democrats can win The Mountain West even in long-time Republican strongholds like Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado and even Nebraska.  Based on current trends, Nevada and New Mexico seem to be Obama's to lose, while Texas and Nebraska are extremely close and Colorado has Obama and McCain locked in a virtual tie.

Bill Richardson could tip the balance for many of these Western states.  An Obama/Richardson ticket would coat New Mexico with a deeper shade of blue.  It would also solidify Nevada for the Democrats and virtually guarantee a win in Colorado.  All three of these are states that Bush carried in 2004.  That's 19 new Electoral Votes right there.

Now for the big Bill Richardson advantage: Texas.  It sounds insane, but Obama is doing well there.  As recently as the end of February, the Texas polls had Obama trailing McCain 47% - 46%.  You might say "Clinton beat Obama in the Texas Primary, so doesn't she have a better chance of winning there in the General Election?"

No.  She trails by 7-points.  The theory is that Republican talk show host and general hypocrite/moron Rush Limbaugh convinced a large number of Republicans to vote for Hillary in the Democratic Primary there in an effort to extend the Obama/Clinton civil war.  WeNeedObama posted an excellent article on this topic last month.

If Obama is truly as close to McCain in Texas as the polls suggest he is, Richardson would be a very powerful weapon for the Obama forces. 

As a Latino Richardson would help the ticket statewide in Texas, but specifically in El Paso, which is snuggled up to New Mexico's southern border.  El Paso has a large Latino population and a major turn out for the Democrats in El Paso could mean the extra one or two percentage points Obama would need to take Texas's huge allotment of 34 electoral votes. 

John Edwards: Although Edwards is a fun name to toss around there are many reasons an Obama/Edwards ticket is unlikely.  One is that Edwards already lost as a Vice Presidential candidate last time around with John Kerry.  That being said, I thought the Kerry campaign did everything in their power to minimize Edwards' appeal.  He seemed to be muzzled during most of the Kerry Campaign, but on the Obama ticket I believe he would play a much more visible and productive role.

The good news for Edwards is that despite the loss as a VP, his reputation was not permanently tarnished like John Kerry's was.  So it is not out of the question that he gives it another try.

Edwards clearly wants to be the President someday and what better stepping stone to the Presidency is there than becoming the Vice President?  Each time he has run, the Senator from North Carolina has built more and more in-roads with voters. 

A Barack Obama/John Edwards ticket would likely improve the Democrats' chances of winning in places like South Carolina and Ohio, but ultimately I believe the fate of John Edwards is to be our next Attorney General, not Vice President.

We're not quite done with the list yet, but the rest will have to wait for tomorrow.  Check back in and find out who my top pick to be Obama's VP is.

Breaking News:  It appears that it is actually out of the question that Edwards becomes the VP.  Just a few hours ago the North Carolina Senator announced he would not accept an offer from either Clinton or Obama to be their running mate in the fall.

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