Overreading

Chris Bowers proclaims that if Barack Obama picks Tim Kaine as his VP nominee that "would also signal that Obama has no intention to govern as a progressive" whereas "by contrast, Obama / Sebelius would be fine, and Obama / Dodd would be exciting." This seems to me to be reading way too much into the VP selection. Ronald Reagan's selection of George H.W. Bush much more presaged Bush becoming a conservative than Reagan becoming a moderate.

The best guide to how Obama intends to govern isn't who he picks as VP, it's the stuff he's said about how he intends to govern and what he hopes to accomplish. That'd put him to the left of the Clinton-Gore era of the Democratic Party but to the right of the Open Left vision of where the party ought to be, and that'll still be the case no matter who Obama picks.