And the Runner-Up for President Is...

This is a great week for degenerate gamblers. You have more Olympic events in normally played sports such as Soccer (Futbol), Baseball, and Basketball, as opposed to those random ones we watch for pure voyeurism such as women’s discus and pole vault. I can’t imagine how one determines the point spread on the parallel bars in gymnastics. And in my other favorite topic area, politics, Obama is on the verge of announcing his VP nomination. Now it is kind of surprising to me that the American public has very little direct influence in choosing the 2^nd in command. I mean if something happens to the President we’re stuck with this person for better or worse. I can’t believe that didn’t play out as a scarier scenario when Bush picked Cheney. It also surprises me that most people don’t think that the other person on the ticket matters very much. I guess that is true, but there is always a risk that he/she may do more damage than they’re worth, stick their foot in their mouth or have some very deeply buried oddities.

If I was going to pick a running mate I would consider a few things first:

1. Does he/she make me look more or less powerful? For Obama that would be a no on Senator Biden, seeing as he’s been around A LOT longer and has A LOT more experience. Who wants to look like the little kid with the old uncle? Then again, this didn’t seem to hold true for our current administration.
2. Does our name combo sound nice? Obama/Biden- okay. Obama/Sibelius-what a mouthful! Obama/Kaine- very nice. McCain/Pawlenty- kind of yuck. McCain/Lieberman- too long.
3. Finally, does he/she complement me in photos? This is probably much more important than it used to be given our access to massive amounts of media. I would prefer someone that doesn’t make me look too short, but who I could also still wear heels around. I think this might be harder for McCain than Obama. He’s so pasty already, he should really think about someone who can look at the crowd with the sun in his eyes without a baseball cap.

The VP choice is the last thing to be excited about until the actual election, because it is one of the few things in politics that reminds me of sports. I feel just like I did a few weeks ago at the end of the trading deadline in baseball. And even though I don’t think either candidate have a Manny Ramirez up their sleeve, I can’t wait to see if my predictions are right. If I was a betting person, I’d pick Kaine for Obama and Pawlenty for McCain, but the U.S. will lose to Cuba in Olympic baseball.