More On The Johnson/Holder Show Today

Item: Kent Conrad (D-ND) spills the beans, says that Eric Holder and Jim Johnson asked him about 20 names, including several retired military officials.

Analysis: This is an example of the quasi-private nature of the process. The campaign pretends that it’s entirely discreet, but they know that certain things will get out, and in some ways, they welcome the trial balloon effect … and the discussion about whether an Obama/Clark or Obama/Jones ticket would be feasible and worthy.

Informed Guesswork: Ret. Gen. James Jones of the Marine Corps and Ret. Gen. Wes Clark of the Army are probably the names on the list.

Comments

This is definitely the backdoor draft, as it were, to see which names generate buzz, positive and negative.

Clark is such an interesting choice, though I remain biased as a former Draft Clark member. Given the Clinton connections and the heft in Foreign Policy, it's certainly worthy of more discussion.

Posted by JLW | June 10, 2008 3:49 PM

I think you meant "discreet" (which means quiet, behind the scenes) rather than "discrete" (which means singular, stand-alone, solitary). They are two different words with completely different meanings.

Posted by hopeless pedant | June 10, 2008 4:01 PM

Wes Clark would certainly be at the top of Hillary's list of VP choices. He seems like an even better choice for Obama since he is pretty much the diametric opposite in so many ways. As a "war hero", Clark is right there with John McCain, and could effectively cancel that aspect of McCain's appeal. Also, next to Obama running with Hillary, it would do the most to appease the Clinton supporters, since Clark has been a long time friend and supporter of the Clintons.

Not to mention the fact that Wes is smarter in his sleep than Obama is in the middle of the day after several cups of coffee and a couple of cigarettes.

Posted by robert ethan | June 10, 2008 4:13 PM

Webb is technically a retired military official too.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | June 10, 2008 4:26 PM

What about Ret. Gen. Anthony Zinni?

Posted by Tom | June 10, 2008 4:33 PM

Definitely this is info the campaign wants out there. I cover Conrad on the Hill sometimes; he is VERY good at giving a lot of information but never crosses the line to blab more than he should.

Posted by scarpy | June 10, 2008 5:21 PM

Picking a retired military officer would possibly be the stupidest choice. Obama might as well take out TV ads announcing that he doesn't know anything about foreign policy and needs a retired general to hold his hand on national security. I don't believe any retired military officer or anybody like Sam Nunn or Joe Biden will seriously be considered as veep. A huge part of Obama's campaign is the argument that judgment (on Iraq) is more important than experience. That would be completely negated by picking a veep on the basis of national security experience.

Posted by Ron | June 11, 2008 9:23 AM

BREAKING NEWS

Jim Johnson has resigned.

And another one bites the dust.

Posted by US Veteran | June 11, 2008 3:23 PM

Good grief, not Wes Clark and his turtlenecks! He is sissyish looking. For that matter, so is Obama. Get a rugged man to stand beside him to offset his whimpy demeanor. Sorry, gotta tell it like it is, Obama looks like he is getting ready to fall over.

Posted by Betty | June 11, 2008 5:29 PM

Clark is pretty tough, have you seen a picture of him with his shirt off? The guy does like 20 laps of the pool before anyone else gets out of bed. Obama on the other hand looks like he just crawled out of a grave and is about to terrorize the local townsfolk. A distinctly Undead Zombie look about the man, and it will only get worse with time.

Posted by robert ethan | June 11, 2008 6:20 PM