I heard on NPR this morning that Sibelius is on the short list for

[leftyladyfrommo]

vice president.

Do you think she would be good?

[SheilaT]

1. I think she would be fantastic.

Despite all the yammering here on DU about how she's nobody or she would be a terrible candidate because she's shy on foreign policy experience and isn't a vet and isn't Hillary and all sorts of garbage, here's what I think.

Obama does NOT need an attack dog as his VP. He needs someone he trusts and can work well with. Kathleen certainly is both of those. She also has a lot more experience than most people realize, having served several terms in the Kansas legislature, and then becoming the first Democratic Insurance Commissioner in something like a hundred years. She inherited a budget shortfall and turned it around. She has worked well with a difficult Republican-dominated legislature. She persuaded the former head of the Kansas Republican party to switch parties and run as her lieutenant governor two years ago. How's that for bi-partisanship? She immensely personable, and a much better speaker than the dreadful State of the Union response back in January would have you believe. Most of my Kansas friends agreed that she was told what to say and how to see it, as it was so unlike her.

I have been secretly hoping it will be her for some time now. My only hesitation is that I'm not sure that Kansas wouldn't be the worse off in the long run without her. Mark Parkinson, while a fine fellow, was not (so I understood) planning to run for governor himself after this term. I don't think Kansas has a tradition of lieutenant governors going on the higher job, but I might be wrong about that. But certainly not in the past 18 years when I lived there. And no other Democrat of any substance or state-wide visibility seems to be ready or willing to step up and at least run for governor in two years. Paul Morrison would have been the obvious choice until he self-destructed. So if Kathleen becomes VP, the state will suffer. In my opinion. Hopefully I wrong about that, and she will get the nod.

[beyurslf]

2. She is my first choice. I hope he chooses her. I have said all along I think he needs to pick a

woman. And, I am personally offended by the reports that picking a woman other than HRC would offend all of HRC's supporters. As someone who supported HRC from the very beginning of the race, I call that out as sexist garbage. What that says is no woman in the entire Dem party is qualified to be Prez or VP other than HRC. How can we sell ourselves so short? HRC may be immensly qualified, but so are other women in the party.