Should Kerry Pick His VP Now or Later? What Do You Think?

[Yavin4]

I think that he should pick his VP by the end of April. He needs to get another voice out on the campaign trail, and he needs to keep up the public's enthusiasm for his campaign.

What do you think?

[Dookus]

1. nope

I don't think there's any rush at all.

Plenty of people are already out campaigning for Kerry. He doesn't need to pick a VP now.

[ronnykmarshall]

2. End of the month

He needs another person out there.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

19. Soon. He needs someone else out there, I agree.

[boobooday]

Announce at the convention

It will bring a lot of attention to the venue where the ideas get presented, and give the slimeballs less time to lob their garbage bombs.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[waldenx]

3. doesn't matter

his choice will be so disgusting, might as well be sooner.

[ronnykmarshall]

7. Oh.

:eyes:

[KC21304]

11. Really ? Isn't that interesting.

Would you care to give us a name of someone you would not find disgusting ?

[waldenx]

25. a liberal

that isnt controlled by AIPAC or the DLC.

[Jai4WKC08]

31. AIPAC huh...

You're right. You will be "disgusted" by whoever it is.

Glad to know where you're coming from.

Sad, sad, sad....

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jai4WKC08]

41. No, what's disgusting is that...

Too many people can't seem to understand that supporting Israel is precisely what's best for America. When push comes to shove, Israel is our ONLY ally in the region.

Fortunately, most Senators are smart enough to know this.

[hippiegranny]

32. merry sunshine

just checked in

[childslibrarian]

4. Later...

Looks like this Clarke thing may last a while...Wait till it blows over.
Besides, all of his fellow candidates are doing a great job pitching in on the message. I'm still shocked by how united everyone is...

[ezee]

9. Agreed

he should wait till the convention. And besides, the WH is too busy sliming Clarke and other truthful citizens.
They most likely wouldn't have the time to devote to a VP pick right now. We really don't want to over tax there brains, whats left of the few cells they started with.

[CalebHayes]

18. It will blow over and then come back after the convention...

because the 911 report comes out on the first day of the convention.

So I would say sometimes just before the convention.

[CalebHayes]

5. A few weeks before the convention.

[Thrill]

6. After next month

May

[Cuban_Liberal]

8. Middle to late June.

Kerry's doing just FINE by himself, and people need to quit getting their panties in a wad over every blip in a poll. The sooner he picks a running mate, the sooner the Repubs can start targeting their attacks on said running mate...

[peacetalksforall]

10. Later - he should take his time and choose very carefully with the

help of outsiders who will think (try to think) like Rove and Racicot and try to come up with every slimey thing they will and approach the decision based on who is most teflon coated. They should get the advice of the media people who are so excellent at analysis - Lyons, Conason, Alterman, Corn, Katerina VDH (a repeat) and it should be throughly analyzed in the think tank headed by Podesta. There is no reason to hurry. Keep questioning - are they going to stand up to the slime of Leno, O'Reilly, Hannity, Robertson, Falwell - JK has to have someone more perfect than he is.

[KC21304]

12. I heartily agree, and then he should pick Wes Clark.

[bigwillq]

13. I think he should announce in late Summer

like Early to mid August.

[tedoll78]

14. If I learned anything from the Dean campaign..

it's that a good campaign will time certain announcements to either change the subject or to build on momentum.

Dean says something about the rebel flag? Announce some key endorsements!
Dean says something about the Iowa caucuses? Announce another key endorsement!
Boring news week where his opponents are getting all of the attention? Announce a special fundraising drive!

Dean's campaign was very graceful and adept at this art.

There will come a time in this campaign where the topic of discussion for that week will be negative for John Kerry. Kerry only has a limited number of bullets in his campaign revolver - the silver one being the timing of his VP announcement. He should wait. If all appears clear at the end of May, I say go for it. He'd cover his butt through Spring and then get two more months' worth of a VP candidate campaigning for the ticket.

[citizen snips]

15. before the convention.

That is when Kerry will announce his VP.

[Paradise]

16. Now, let's see...

What's better 2 against 1 OR 2 against 2 ??? hmmmm :crazy:

[dae]

22. Paradise, you and usscole are right, Kerry needs parity in matching

mouth pieces.
I would only let it wait till the Clarkequake aftershocks lessen in intensity.

[Paradise]

26. yes, dae, it definitely must be done strategically

or is that 'strategerically' (he*s got me so confused :crazy:).

[Tom_Foolery]

17. Mid or Late June...

then the "B43" hooligans will shoot their wads just before the convention. I think Rove missed the boat by starting his attacks on Kerry so soon. What's he going to have just after the conventions? I think they'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel for lies about Kerry.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi Tom_Foolery!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[hippiegranny]

34. the thing about lies is

that with enough evil imagination, there is no end. ever! these pustules will always be able to come up with some new fairy tale to foist upon an unsuspecting public. look at the volumes of crap they flung at bill clinton!

[usscole]

20. He should pick a VP now and shadow cabinet

Bush has a whole team dominating the media. Kerry is playing one on ten. He should pick a VP and a good part of his cabinet ASAP, and present his team against the Bush team. That would be a good matchup for Democrats.

[SW FL Dem]

21. As nuch as I would like to know. I don't see it happening before

the convention. Right now, he has many people out campaigning for him. There is no point in naming someone now. It just gives the opposition more time to dig up dirt on the VP nominee.

[JI7]

23. that will give months to attack the vp candidate

kerry already has others out there campaigning for him. if he announced who the vp was now the republicans would get more time to attack the vp and spend money on attacking them. kerry has to worry about defending himself for now and then pick a vp later. lack of voices is not the problem as there are already people out there for kerry.

[Auntie Bush]

24. About 2 weeks before the convention

Appointing sooner gives Rove et al more time to attack and put out negative ads. Not at the convention because Kerry and the Democrats will already be getting plenty TV time...so why then? Announce it a couple weeks earlier and grab all the news while building up suspense for weeks ahead of time. Keep putting out leaks that Kerry will announce (?) and get the media talking about it and in a frenzy. Just like Wes did before he announced.

[VOX]

28. Not sure that making the pick earlier is a good idea...

This is a very long campaign -- it's still four months to the Democratic Convention in late July.

The public is probably going to be extremely fatigued by all the political messages/sound bites throughout the spring and summer.

Whatever lift the announcement of Kerry's running mate can produce will quite likely be dissipated over these long months. The ticket needs to be a potent, hard-hitting force to be reckoned with.

I'm of the mind that perhaps it's best to name the veep nominee one or two weeks before the convention, as per custom. That way, the ticket will still have heat, momentum and novelty when the GOP goes into its convention mode in late August-early September.

[Snivi Yllom]

29. Now. Big bounce when he announces.

[watercolors]

30. Wait for convention!

Kerry is doing great, Why give the repugs any one else to slander. We have many months to go , don't need all our eggs in one basket right now! bush administration has many scandals to go that will keep them in the headlines and to occupy there time.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. I think

he should choose Wes Clark NOW so he can go about bashing the shit out of the cabal over WMD, Iraq and Bin Laden while Kerry addresses our domestic issues.

[Jai4WKC08]

35. I honestly don't know

I'd rather see it sooner than later, but I can see pros and cons to both approaches. I suppose that's what the political experts on his staff get paid to figure out.

If I had to guess, I would say not right now. Kerry doesn't need a bump now--better to let the Clarke publicity play its course, and work hard on defining himself to the majority of the voters who have no clue as to what he's about. As someone said, he has lots of help already available. Or he should--I still don't see much real support from some key players.

But I wouldn't wait too long either. There will be much gnashing of teeth, and even some temporary disaffection, when the announcemeent is made. Not to mention the media going ape-shit, analyzing this and that, running polls that show, well, whatever they want them to show. We sure don't need that in conjunction with the convention.

Maybe he should do it right before some major event that he wants publicity for, but which will carry the bounce into something totally positive. I'm thinking his trip to Iraq might be perfect, assuming it's still a go, as I don't see a down-side. The Bushies will rant and rave, but it'll only make them look bad in the long run. And they might be at least temporarily diverted from attacks on the VP.

I'd like to see a shadow cabinet announced too, but since that CAN wait until after the convention, maybe it should. To generate some last minute publicity. Especially if there is some sort of turn in the economy or major crisis or Rove-instigated surprise overseas.

[surfermaw]

36. Let them all speak

Now he is out there with 4 or 5 V.P...keep them as long as he can,

[arewethereyet]

37. summer

he needs to define himself first. he has yet to begin that.

[Piperay]

39. Later...

that way he is more able to pick the one that will help him the most as he sees where the attacks will be aimed. Also by waiting the repukes are more off guard, they don't know who to aim their mud at. :think:

[bklyncowgirl]

40. Later--but not too much later

I think the best thing to do is for Kerry to keep on having a group of surrogates--including several of the VP candidates out there to speak for him on the news shows and to play the attack dog.

One of the nice things about this is that Bush is married to Cheney. If Cheney screws up--as he has recently, getting rid of him short of Uncle Dick taking another coronary is going to be messy. If one of our guy's surrogates screws up Kerry can just distance himself.

When he makes the decision, it should be someone well known, and highly competent.