Head Fakes

by digby

I have to say that I’m really losing interest in the VP race at this point. It’s always tedious, but this year has been especially excruciating. (Kerry chose on July 6th, 2004.) Here’s the latest teaser from Jonathan Stein at Mojo, with what I agree is probably the real story:

Reportedly, John Kerry is being considered as Obama’s VP. I’m not buying it. This has to be a series of headfakes from the Obama campaign, right? Creating media speculation on different options — one week of Bayh, one week of Biden, one week of Kerry — keeps people talking about the choice for almost month. And ultimately, they can find a better choice than any of those three, meaning that even if the actual choice is flawed, people will still say, “Whew. Better than the other options, anyway.”

There’s more to it, though, I think. The Obama campaign has been very good at rolling out announcements for maximum dramatic effect. All those primary endorsements were tightly held until just the right moment. So, I think there’s at least a possibility that it may be a better choice (whoever that is) than we are all currently fearful it might be, even on the merits. It’s very hard to imagine that choosing Bayh or Kerry would be dramatic and I think it’s pretty clear that when it comes to stagecraft and tempo (if not their politics) they go for the drama.

I’m hopeful it will be someone that will galvanize the race and get everyone excited going into the convention. The race could certainly use an energy boost.

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