Recently, there has been buzz about Trump picking Bob Corker for VP; and about Clinton picking Elizabeth Warren. Also, the Libertarian convention is coming up soon; so I think this is a good time to speculate on possible VP picks.
REPUBLICANS
There’s two ways to go speculate about this: either use strategic thinking to determine who would be a good choice (from the GOP point of view); or try to get into Donald Trump’s psyche and think who he would like: for example, Jim Webb could be a good strategic choice (if he got the delegates at the convention to swallow him), but maybe the Donald would not nominate someone who came off as more manly than him, or with longer fingers. Also, many high ranking republicans may not want to risk running as Donald’s VP. A good way of winnowing down the field is looking at people who would have nothing to lose by joining Il Douche: maybe Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee or John Bolton. My gut feeling is that he will go the classic authoritarian route and pick a right wing general or admiral: I don’t think Petraeus would go for it, but there is no shortage of dominionist kooks in the military.
DEMOCRATS
I think only a black swan event will prevent HRC from winning the white house. In that sense, the VP pick should rather help downticket democrats. In that sense, I think the veep should be latino, seeing as how 1) there are competitive senate races in NV, AZ, FL, CO and NC; and 2) there are possible house picks in TX and CA due to The Donald activating latino voters. I very much respect Tom Perez’s work, but I don’t think he would make a skilled politician. I think Julian Castro is too green, and the fact that he doesn’t speak spanish would make him less effective in reaching out to latinos who don’t normally vote. Raul Grijalva would make a great form of defense against impeachment for HRC (a la Spiro Agnew), but his radical past makes him too much of a liability. I personally like Hilda Solis and Xavier Becerra, for similar reasons: although they are strong progressives, they are both a part of the democratic establishment as well; so they would make fine bridges between the Bernie and Clinton wings of the party.
LIBERTARIANS
I think this could eb a big year for libertarians, as there are many conservative never-trumpers who could be persuaded. I think Libertarians will see that and pick Gary Jhonson as their nominee, since he is their most credible candidate. I think Johnson could pick a republican and gain a lot of votes from anti-trumpers: it could be pro-choice Brian Sandoval, walk-the-walk libertarian Justin Amash (who is arab-american, and could credibly criticize Clinton on foreign policy), or Ben Sasse, a priviledged voice for anti-trumpers. I think Rand Paul is out of the running, because he is no longer credible as a libertarian
