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let’s stop kidding ourselves, the democratic primary is over. who do you like for VP?

running down a few of the short-list names that have been on pundits’ lips…

-Hillary Clinton, we’re to believe, makes up half of a “dream ticket” — maybe the most asinine thing i’ve ever heard. there’s no way the obama camp is dumb enough to buy into this farce, and frankly i’d be surprised if clinton were actually willing to take the #2 spot at all. let’s not even dignify this one.

- unsuitable as hillary is for the VP job, there’s no denying that her campaign has energized women and it would be a shame to forfeit that energy — one reason why names like Kathleen Sibelius (KS gov), Janet Napolitano (AZ gov) and Claire McCaskill (MO sen) are being tossed around lately. i don’t know much about sibelius or mccaskill, other than that they’re often cited as bellwethers of changing dynamics in formerly red-leaning midwestern swing states. but napolitano is competent and tested, and it would be interesting to see whether she’d give mccain a run for his money in his home state.

- speaking of beating mccain on his own turf… Bill Richardson is a smart pick for the experience he’d bring, especially in foreign policy; he knows his shit but doesn’t have the washington stank on him. then there’s the latino thing — hey, nothing says ‘change’ like a black-brown presidential ticket. more than that, though, richardson can deliver western states. obama is already poised to do well west of the rockies, but a popular western governor would make him truly formidable — and with CO, NM, NV, & MT in his column, he has some wiggle room in those big white eastern states hillary clinton keeps tellling us are so ungodly important.

- …which also makes montana governor Brian Schweitzer an interesting, if unlikely, prospect. he’s an affable good-ol’-boy and a colorful character — and green is definitely one of his colors, one i’d like to see more prominently displayed in the obama rainbow.

- then there’s your swing-state heavies like pennsylvania’s sen. Bob Casey, a major crossover obama backer who deserves credit for his role in cutting clinton’s lead there in half, or ohio’s sen. Sherrod Brown, or OH gov Ted Strickland. nothing against any of these guys, but their names are usually dropped in discussions of how to win over socially conservative, blue-collar, rust-belt types — y’know, the supposed economic populists who somehow always fail to vote their self-interest because they’re too distracted by wedge issues. frankly, chasing blindly after these votes to the exclusion of less populous but winnable states in the west and south is a big part of the failed conventional wisdom that’s cost democrats almost two decades of elections, with hillary clinton as its latest victim. please, no more lipservice for this foolishness. postpartisanship is all well and good, but if those elusive midcontinental swing voters aren’t ready to pull the lever for a democrat this year, slapping a pro-life white dude on the ticket isn’t going to change it.

- the same might be said of VA sen. Jim Webb, about whom i’m fairly indifferent these days, though he’s supposedly a frontrunner for the VP nod. i liked him in 2006 when he was running against macaca on an antiwar platform, but it was disappointing how quickly he backed off that position once elected — the old ‘we don’t have the votes, whaddaya gonna do?’ song & dance — and anymore his appeal as a potential VP candidate seems to be predicated on his military credentials, his republican past (!), and alleged appeal to antiwar conservatives.

- other names i’ve heard, ranging from the preposterous to simply “meh”: wesley clark, joe biden, chuck hagel or mike bloomberg (yeah, riiiight), tom daschle, john edwards.

okay, you go now. predictions? druthers?