Missouri for Edwards
By Byron LaMasters
Interesting story here. Missouri Democratic Party County chairs support Edwards:
Missouri favorite son Dick Gephardt is not the favorite vice presidential candidate of several rank-and-file state Democratic leaders looking to deliver its 11 electoral votes to John Kerry.
Asked which prospective running mate would help Kerry win the battleground state, eight of 11 county chairmen and chairwomen selected at random by The Associated Press chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Gephardt and Edwards are among those Kerry is reported to be considering.
Only two of the county officials chose Gephardt, and one picked Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. President Bush won Missouri by just 3 percentage points in 2000.
"Gephardt just doesn't have the get-up-and-go that Edwards has," said Irma Brannum of Poplar Bluff, the Butler County party chairwoman. "Edwards is the exciting one," said St. Charles County chairman Joe Koester.
If Kerry were having trouble with labor, then Gephardt would make sense, but Kerry's doing fine with labor. If I had to bet on it, I'd bet on Tom Vilsack, but a John Edwards pick wouldn't surprise me.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at June 29, 2004 04:49 PM
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Tom Vilsack is probably a fine governor, but his name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
On the positive side, Vilsack sounds a bit Klingon. That would help Kerry with the Trekkie vote.
Also on the good side, nobody can accuse Vilsack of being French.
But gastronomically, Vilsack sounds more than a little like Vlasic. The Republicans would have a field day talking about the Democratic "ketchup & pickles" ticket.
And an anagram of Vilsack is: SLACK IV. At least in medicine, a slack IV doesn't sound like such a good thing. Medical professionals may balk at such a name.
So I hope Sen. Kerry will carefully consider these factors before making a decision on a running mate.
