A small Fix for a Malcolm, a great step for Blogkind

Malcolm happily adds Chris Cillizza's hot-link widget (see right and sidebar).

He has found Cillizza unfailingly thoughtful and informative about the doings of the DC elect, electable, and downright disgraceful.

Cillizza was on the button with Obama over the last two years. Now he is surveying the fields for Veep-nominations. He may, just may, be about to downgrade the chances of one whom Malcolm thought a good bet: Kathleen Sebelius, the Governor of Kansas:

The Fix will tackle one candidate a week, making the case for and then against. We kick off the series today by arguing that Obama should select Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to join him on the Democratic ticket.

Sebelius, close readers know, currently holds down the No. 2 slot on the most-recent Veepstakes Line. (Huffington Post's Sam Stein penned a Sebelius profile of his own just yesterday.)

Sebelius' rating on Cillizza's "Veepstakes" is complicated by two factors:

1. The number one (and a very good one, too) on Cillizza's list has been Ted Strickland, the Governor of Ohio. Strickland ticks so many boxes -- swing State, ordained Methodist Minister, academic, budget-balancer, good record on education and tax-cutting. Yet Strickland has pronounced, using the same terms General Sherman did back in 1884; "If drafted I will not run, nominated I will not accept and if elected I will not serve. I don't know how more crystal clear I can be."
2. As Cillizza puts it: "It's hard to know whether Obama can (or, more importantly, would) name a woman whose name is not Clinton. Clinton's most ardent supporters would almost certainly see such a move as a final indignity in a race they believe has been chock full of them."

The Sam Stein profile, mentioned there by Cillizza, is worth the link, and explains why Sebelius is high with many Democrats:

In May 2007, after a devastating tornado had wiped out the town of Greensburg, Sebelius was quick to highlight one of the unspoken truths of the recovery episode: Kansas lacked the resources and manpower it needed because much of the state's National Guard resources had been sent to Iraq. Going public, she repeatedly took jabs at Bush, scolding his Iraq policies for creating a readiness gap at home. Her rebukes earned her accolades in Kansas and with the press. It also prompted the scorn of several Bush lackeys -- a not-too-unfortunate wrist slapping for an emerging Democratic official.

Stein then balances that by mentioning Sebelius' lack of whump! in replying to Bush's State of the Union, which was then seen as a downer.

Read both sources, and be enlightened. Sphere: Related Content