All the Way with JFK?
That’s John F. Kerry, of course. Anyway, more to the point, the perennial question during the primaries is: which front-runner will choose which also-ran for Vice President? This round, the answer is: not Kerry-Edwards. It is a tradition of long standing that a candidate for President cannot win unless he can deliver the South, and that to do so, there needs to be some ticket-balancing. Kennedy is supposed to have tapped Lyndon Johnson because Texas is technically a southern state, but sufficiently maverick that he’d owe nothing to the Deep South that might otherwise preclude social change in respect to civil rights for blacks. George II, of course, is “from” Texas, giving him southern credentials that he balanced with Cheney, who is “from” Wisconsin. (They’re really from Maine and Texas, respectively, aren’t they? Still, North & South, isn’t it?) That Kerry, a Boston Brahmin, would tap Edwards, makes sense. Earlier, everyone wondered who would grab Wesley Clark. I’m not even sure where Clark’s from, but as career military, he’s honorarily southern, at least. There have been those who have said Dean ought to match with Clark, and I can see some anti-war benefit there, but Kerry’s got the momentum right now, so the ticket questions are being lobbed his way. A bit early.