As the hours tick by to the time Barack Obama will probably announce his Vice Presidential running mate, I thought I’d chime in with some last minute thoughts.  As if you haven’t gotten enough already.

I was planning on writing an entry on how the late night talk show hosts were going to tease Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana endlessly on his last name if he was picked.  It’s pronounced like the word “bye”, you see.  But maybe they will anyway, since saying “bye bye” is what Evan Bayh seems to be doing to any speculation that he’s going to become VP.  For that matter, so is Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.  MSNBC (among others) has the report that they got the “it’s not you” talk from Obama.

So, the good governor and good Senator will not be picked.  Probably.  Yet, what of the rest?  There’s still a huge amount of names to go through, even if the options seem to be pared down.

Something I found interesting today is that Hillary Clinton never even seemed to be in consideration for the position.  Obama never asked for any documents from her, saying that he and his team did extensive research and learned all they needed to know during the primaries.  I noted that many commenters found this odd, but I’m not so sure.  After I read the story, I remembered back to that cozy little conversation the two had shortly after Obama secured the delegates.  It got me wondering if Obama promised her a Cabinet position in return for not actively seeking the Vice Presidency.  She’d certinainly have an opportunity to do more in one than she would as VP.  Remains to be seen, I suppose.

Then there were people like Sebelius, Salazar, Dodd, Nunn, Kerry, Edwards, etc.  My problem with the first four was lack of name recognition.  All could probably provide something to the ticket except a face. I think name recognition is important, at least in this modern election cycle.  People just want to know who a possible VP might be.  Sebelius is better known than she was several months ago, but only by us politics geeks, I think.  Salazar, who?  Dodd, I know (he’s one of my Senators), and a lot of people will know his name by virtue of him being a former candidate, but he’s still mostly known only within political circles.  Kerry and Edwards are known, but Edwards adulterized his way out of consideration, and I think the shadows of the Swift Boaters would create a headache for Obama with a Kerry Pick.  Nunn, I think, is too far off Obama’s positions, I think.

So, that would seem to narrow us to Joe Biden, who’s being seriously looked at now.  I feel afraid that Biden might suffer from some of the same name recognition problems, but they may be alleviated by a couple things.  As a member of the current cycle of Congress, he is well aware of the how Washington works now.  Nunn came to the Senate a year earlier than Biden, but he’s also been out of the Senate going on 11 years.  Things have changed since then, and despite the “outsider” persona Obama presented earlier in the campaign, I think he will need someone who knows how the Congress works right now.  Yes, an insider (I believe that McCain, on the other hand, may pick a relative outsider for his running mate).  Biden is well positioned to be such an insider.  Biden is also chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, which surely can’t hurt.

Second, Biden also has (as far as I know), relatively few ghosts that could come back to haunt him.  This is why I don’t consider Dodd a serious candidate for the position.  Chappaquiddick would come back to the forefront pretty quickly if Obama picked Dodd.  Add that to the possibly illegal mortgage deal Dodd got not too long ago, and Dodd is, to put it bluntly, a nuclear bomb if picked.

One problem that Biden might face is his tendency to not think before he speaks.  He made some embarassing statements earlier in the campaign.  What might offset that, however, is that he seems to be more hawkish than Obama on foreign affairs, which could help bring in some of those who are like that.

In conclusion, Biden, as the emerging front runner, is probably the best choice Obama is going to get.  Someone who shares many of his views (or otherwise would be insufferable to work with), but can also offer some insight into Washington political culture, and offer some differing views.  Of course, this may be all for naught if Obama ends up picking someone else.