3 NON BOMBS.

July 31, 2008

4:02 PM

"Who do you think would make a good VP?" It's a common question for me these days. With four posts bashing potential picks under my belt (Chet Edwards, Nunn, Bayh, Kaine), it's reasonable to assume I'm just a nattering nabob of negativism, all too willing to dismiss suggestions while offering none of my own.

But it's not true! I think there are plenty of great Democratic politicians out there who would be excellent additions to the ticket. It's just that the current discussion - focused as it is around DC insiders like Bayh, Clinton, Biden, and Dodd and conservative Democrats like Edwards, Nunn, and Kaine - leaves better options out of the discussion. Here are three potential running-mates who I haven't heard a peep about from The Great Mentioner, but who I'd love to see on an Obama ticket:

John Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber is a former two-term governor of Oregon; before that, he served in the Oregon legislature for fourteen years, eight as president of the Oregon Senate. An ER doc, health policy is his passion; as president of the Senate, he pioneered the Oregon Health Plan, which greatly expanded access to health care for lower-income citizens. He improved the plan as governor, and since leaving office has launched the Archimedes Movement, a grassroots health policy reform effort that's been trying to ensure universal health care in Oregon. He's incredibly charismatic, and would be an obvious point person for Obama to turn to when it came time to put together and pass a universal health care package.

Amy Klobuchar. The Senate class of 2006 has become fertile ground for veep speculation; witness the breathless hype over Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill, and the occasional mention of Sherrod Brown or Bob Casey. But Klobuchar, the junior Senator from Minnesota, hasn't gotten much attention, which is a shame. She won her open Senate contest in 2006 by a twenty-point margin; for a point of comparison, she was statistically tied with her opponent in January 2006, and Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, won reelection that year by a percentage point. Prior to her election to the Senate, served as county attorney for Hennepin County, which accounts for a quarter of the state's population. She made a name for herself by targeting major financial criminals; think Eliot Spitzer before the prostitutes. She has a strong record on health policy, fighting to give new moms the right to 48-hour hospital stays before she even entered politics. During her admittedly brief time in the Senate, she's continued her strong track record, securing $250 million to rebuild the Interstate 35 bridge within a week of its collapse last year and introducing an additional $1 billion package in the Senate to improve bridges nationwide. She's even been pretty sensible on agricultural policy, introducing an amendment that would have ended subsidies to farmers making over $750,000 a year. She's a solidly liberal rising star from a swingish-state, which is an unfortunately rare commodity these days.

Vic Snyder. Snyder's a Congressman from Arkansas, who's been serving since 1996. He's the chair of the Armed Services subcommittee on oversight, a role he's used to call 28 hearings in this congressional session alone, on everything from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to our linguist gap to broader questions of reconstruction policy and strategy. Indeed, he's quite a foreign policy wonk. His voting record is fantastic: 100% NARAL rating, against the war from the start, even against the Flag Burning Amendment. These are solid liberal stands for anyone to take, but for an Arkansan in a district with a Cook Rating of R+0 to do so takes chutzpah. If that weren't enough, he's a Vietnam veteran and doctor who spent the '80s volunteering in refugee camps in Thailand, Honduras, and Sudan, and whose wife is an ordained Methodist minister. Oh yeah, and she'll be giving birth to triplets during the campaign. Think of the photo ops.

--Dylan Matthews