This is the third part in a three part series on Barack Obama's potential Vice Presidential running mates.

To get caught up here is:

Part 1

Part 2

And now, back to the rumored VP candidates:

Ted Strickland: I have been hesitant to mention Strickland's name so far in Obama's Veepstakes, in large part because this is just a boring pick.  Strickland does not have an electrifying personality, and he most likely won't help win any states other than his home state of Ohio and maybe neighboring Pennsylvania.  He will not compete with Obama for the spotlight and he'll probably sit quietly in the shadow of Obama with his foreign policy and executive experience.

As boring as he may be, that might be exactly what Obama needs.  I really hate to agree with George Will, but he's right about this one.  In an article last month in the Washington Post Will discusses how close Ohio has been in the past two elections and the fact that had Ohio changed by tiny margins in either election, George W. Bush may have been just a footnote in recent history.

One thing I can get excited about when discussing Ted Strickland is that he whooped Ken Blackwell in his race for governor in 2006 - 60% - 37%.  Ken Blackwell is evil.  He couldn't understand why people thought there was a conflict of interest between his position as the Chief Elections official in Ohio and his position as honorary co-chair of the "Committee to Re-elect George W. Bush" in 2004.  He also said if it were up to him he would have kept Terri Schiavo on life support for 30 years.  So Strickland deserves some credit for electorally destroying a guy like that.

Sam Nunn: Sam Nunn was rumored to have been on John Kerry's short list of VP candidate in 2004 and now he is rumored to be on Obama's as well.

He is a trendy VP pick amongst the pundits.  In fact, there seems to be some sort of pundit code that says you can't be a cool pundit unless you help spread rumors that Sam Nunn is a potential Vice Presidential candidate. 

It is unlikely that he'll get the nod though.  He is very similar to Ted Strickland except he offers the massive disadvantage of being from Georgia.  The Democrats aren't going to win Georgia and even though South Carolina could be in play, Nunn will not be the reason for it. 

On the plus side, Nunn is involved in some very interesting work these days.  He is the CEO of a charitable organization called the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).  The NTI works to reduce the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.  In addition to being one of the most overlooked and important issues of our times, this issue also helps keep Obama/Nunn rumors alive.  As long as Sam Nunn has been in the Senate, he has been dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons, no not just ours, but multi-lateral disarmament.  This is an issue that Barack Obama is passionate about as well.

The reality is, however, if there was reason enough to pick Sam Nunn Obama would take Strickland and his 20 electoral votes.  Obama/Nunn is not going to happen.

Evan Bayh: I'm not sure why Bayh's name comes up in a discussion about Obama's VP, but it does.  This won't happen.  Bayh ran for President himself this year, but his campaign only lasted for about thirty seconds. 

He is now a big time Hillary supporter and is about as useful to most Democrats as one of the B. Nelsons.  The Senator from Indiana has already made it to headline status at eyesonobama.com.  A couple weeks ago I posted an article titled "Senator Bayh and the Imaginary Election."

The article discussed Bayh's assertion that Clinton is somehow already beating McCain in Electoral Votes.  His logic was incredibly twisted and Bush/Hillary-like. 

The only reasonable argument is that he would help improve Obama's chances of winning Indiana.  This is true, he might, but Bayh would increase Obama's chances in Indiana the same way that buying two lottery tickets would.

The fact is Indiana is not going to be won by the Democrats.  It only has 11 electoral votes, they'd be nice, but we can live without them. 

Brian Schweitzer:  I've saved the best for last.  Schweitzer is my top pick to become Barack Obama's vice president.  Obama/Schweitzer in 2008!

Brian Schweitzer is the Governor of Montana.  He may not help Obama win his home state's 3 electoral votes, but unlike Nunn, Schweitzer's popularity would bleed over into neighboring states like Wyoming and North Dakota.  It would also reach farther south into states like Nevada, Colorado and Nebraska.

The big void in Schweitzer's resume, however, is foreign policy.  Conventional wisdom is saying that Obama will need someone strong on foreign policy to be his running mate. 

Personally, I'm not too worried about Obama's foreign policy.  I look forward to watching as world leaders meet with Obama for the first time and suddenly have a new found respect for our country.  "Hey, if those crazy Americans can vote for a guy like this, how bad can they be?"

If Obama's team believes he can make the foreign policy case on his own (by reminding everyone he was right on the Iraq War, right on NAFTA and right on Pakistan) Schweitzer would be an excellent pick to balance the ticket in every other way.  He has The Mountain West advantage, he has executive experience and I believe he will have the unique ability to energize and excite people about Obama without overshadowing him in any way.

Conclusion: So in just three short pieces those are some of the big names being discussed as Obama's potential VPs.  This gets us no closer to actually figuring out who the nominee will be, but at least it provides so fun and interesting fodder for this downtime before PA.

For even more fun with the Veepstakes, check out zenprise's most recent article.  He take a much more scientific approach to this topic and you should check it out.  Find out why he thinks Wes Clark or Bob Kerrey is going to be the nominee.

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