Clark’s no VP

I know a lot of my Dean-supporting friends think that saying “Wesley Clark would be a great vice president for Dean” will ward off the threat, but it ain’t that simple. No one runs for vice president. And it’s unseemly to pick one too soon. But there is a precedent for parading around a potential Secretary of State to lend some military gravitas to a governor with no national experience who spent much of the Viet Nam era as a playboy. It’s too bad Dean can’t squire Clark around the way Bush II did with Colin Powell.
I think Clark would make a great SecState or Secretary of the Pentagon, even, despite his image problems with the rank and file. (He’s called a political general but name me any executive level leader who hasn’t mastered the politics of the faculty lounge, the officer’s club, the NGO.)
For that matter, Gephardt would be a good secretary of labor or agriculture. Keep him away from the Treasury.
Kerry’s got vice president written all over his face.
Moseley-Braun belongs in the cabinet if she can clean up her ethical act and stop hobnobbing with African authoritarians. She’s clearly brilliant and performs at a high level in debates and on the political gasbag shows. Not sure of the perfect cabinet position for her, though. Secretary of the Interior, maybe. Keep her away from State.
If I were president, I’d take one page out of Kucinich’s book and establish a Department of Peace (and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution) and start working on integrating those skils into our daily lives. Make Dennis the cabinet secretary once the details are in place. Keep him away from
Put Lieberman’s compassionate conservatism to work running housing and urban development. Keep him away from financial and insurance-related matters.
Edwards needs some gray in the hair, some more experience, and some gravitas to leaven his Paul McCartney charisma. Make him ambassador to the U.N. and put his charm to work there mending fences. Keep him away from health and human services.
More polarizing than Hillary, Sharpton is another mixed bag but a sharp cookie. I’m having trouble thinking of a suitable cabinet position for him. Keep him away from HUD.
Graham would make a good director of homeland security. Doesn’t seem to have any doctrinal liabilities.
Have I covered everyone? I guess non-Dean supporters would take their candidate out of the above list and find a job for Dean, such as health and human services. (And keeping him away from what, the Pentagon? the IRS? BATF?)
Speaking of Hillary, she’d be the ultimate anti-Ashcroft as Attorney General. More plausibly, she could run EPA or – don’t laugh – homeland security. Anyone who scares religious conservatives that bad can apply her bogeyman powers to our religiously conservative enemies. Take that, Osama! Captured, tried, and executed by a woman. OK, my imagination is running away with me there, just trying to provoke the knee-jerks.