What Barack Obama should look for in a vice president: find his own "Al Gore"

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Obama needs to find his "Al Gore" but take the vice president in an Obama direction. -- Chad

Yesterday, I took a look at who Obama should not pick for a vice president. But since being only negative isn't productive, I want to give Sen. Obama some advice on whom to pick. But the difference is that I won't tell him who to pick, but how to help him decide.

When people ask me who Obama will pick, I tell them simply, "Obama will need to find his Al Gore."

Bill Clinton was revolutionary in that he picked a vice president that didn't help him in geography or age or any other shallow criteria. Clinton picked Gore because he could take over at any time. Most previous presidents had picked someone where they would seem superior: Gore and Clinton were as equal as any president and VP. The pundits had a field day with Clinton picking a fellow Southerner around his age. But Clinton and Gore had the last laugh.

Obama needs to find a kindred spirit that sees his vision as he does, and can take over in a moment's notice. It doesn't mean it has to be someone from the next state over, doesn't have to be a man, and doesn't have to be around the same age. But when you have a 45-year-old candidate against a 71-year-old candidate, youth might be a strong consideration.

On positions, ideally the VP candidate should be anti-Iraq war, but it shouldn't prohibit someone who may have voted for the war as long as they understand we need to get out. The vice president candidate has to take on the tone of the presidential candidate, even if there were disagreements in the race. The classic recent example is George H.W. Bush in 1980 who suddenly flipped to being pro-life AND pro-voodoo economics after being named Ronald Reagan's running mate. Try to avoid a candidate who has to do that much flipping and flopping.

I know I did toss out the idea a few weeks back of George Clooney as an unusual, but effective pick. It wasn't completely serious, but it did have a serious point. Barack Obama is in the unique position of revolutionizing the vice president role and shaping it into what he wants. If Obama is the voice of change, the vice president needs to have an unique voice as well.

The traditional role of vice president has been thrown out the window. No longer will we have a vice president in a do-nothing role such as Dan Quayle. For a number of Americans, they only know two people in the VP role: Al Gore and Dick Cheney.

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These are the two role models for vice president for many Americans. Obama needs to take the best of them in a new direction.

Gore and Cheney took stronger roles than just about any vice president ever, but did so in completely different ways. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had significant roles in shaping not only what the vice president does but also the impact of the VP role in our country.

While everyone agrees that Cheney has abused his power as vice president, don't completely overlook his impact on the office. As difficult as it might be, try to salvage anything good in the power itself, not in terms of what Cheney did with his power, of course.

You have the responsibility of adding on to that tradition of having a strong vice president, inspired by the actions Gore and Cheney took, but doing so in a distinctly Obama direction. So when Sen. Obama interviews prospective candidates, he should ask them what they want to do with the vice presidency role. But Obama should have his own ideas, too.

Obama's quest will be rather difficult. McCain just has to pick someone who might be ready -- look at previous inspirational Republican picks: Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney. Obama's task is to revolutionize the VP in his image, and more importantly, in what the United States needs as it tries desperately to clean up from eight years of the George W. Bush mess.

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