Above all, the Vice Presidential nominee should be a person with leadership qualities of independent thought and military experience. Independent thought is important because the President will need to hear unvarnished comments from his V.P. on critical issues, especially those that are not shared by the President and his advisers. Rubber stamping a President's position on the issues does not speak well for the common good of the people or the nation. The V.P. has to back the President after he makes a decision, but he has to be that counter balance.
The military experience does not have to be in uniform, although that would be preferred. The experience could come from serving on the Armed Forces Service Committee, Foreign Policy Experience and other Military Experience that are active inside and outside of government. That is important because if the V.P. has that experience and has independent thought he will be able to balance the thoughts given to the President by our military leaders and others. We have a V.P. Dick Cheney who did the opposite in the run up to war with Iraq. He manipulated the intelligence and the military facts and threat that Iraq posed for the United States.
Senator Clinton would be more qualified to be President or Vice President than Senator Obama. But neither will be the V.P. nominee in my opinion. The Democratic Vice President Nominee will have to balance out Senator McCain's military experience because enough voters will view McCain's military experience as a problem for Democrats. The decision to go to war in Iraq was George Bush's decision alone. No one else made that decision but he, and he made that decision before congress ever voted for the resolution as Senator Chuck Hagel pointed out some time ago. Both Democrats and Republicans have been responsible for funding the war since it started. The Democratic party did try to restrict funds for the war after they took control of Congress but failed to have enough votes to do so.
The public really does not give much thought to the V.P. because it has not been often that a V.P. had to take control of the Presidency but we have been reminded how V.P. Cheney has abused his office and wielded power that no other V.P. in memory has had. There is no balance in the administration of Bush-Cheney. So the people should watch closely the choice of the Democratic nominee for his running mate. It will way something about the character of the Democratic Presidential nominee and where he will take the country. Experience does matter.
