At this point, and maybe I should have put this more clearly in my premises, but I think the VP pick needs to be somebody who comforts independents, white males, and moderates. I think Obama can safely rely on the Democratic base to turn out for him, and thus need not be overly concerned with Hillary supporters, liberal netroots types, blacks or Hispanics, women, etc. He’s already got all of them more or less in his pocket.

Step 1: Get Hillary supporters to like Richardson.
Step 2: {Choose Richardson as VP.}
Step 3: Profit!

And the McCain campaign would absolutely slaughter Biden: “Obama’s own running mate thought I was best qualified to lead the country…” Etc. Might not matter, but it would certainly happen.

P.S. “Why do you say these things, when you know I will kill you for it?” ;-)

I found that endearing. But if he keeps the beard, he at least has to maliciously sneer more.

And who do you think the Kerry-McCain ticket talk hurts? If Republican voters aren’t laying that on the feet of McCain (and, for that matter, it never hurt Kerry any either), it’s hard to see how that becomes a dealbreaker for Biden with the Dems (and, I should add, there were a lot of members of the Democratic base who loved the idea of Kerry-McCain, for obvious reasons).

Richardson looks as good on paper as Tommy Thompson did on the GOP side, but nobody is talking Tommy Thompson for McCain for the same reason nobody is talking Bill Richardson for Obama: completely lackluster candidates except on paper. For all of Richardson’s bonafides (and nobody doubts them), he has more or less proven himself absolutely incapable of translating his experience to presence (which is the only way experience matters in an election context). He is not being discussed as in serious contention for the VP slot for exactly that reason. He has proven that he brings precisely nobody to the ticket and generates precisely no political center of gravity of his own.

I still do not understand why Obama simply doesn’t pick Richardson: foreign policy, energy, New Mexico, hispanics. What’s not to love?