Where is Tom Daschle?

Barack Obama's weaknesses are matched only by his strengths. It is his extraordinary political and policy skill that has managed to cancel out the many paper difficulties he faces - little traditional foreign policy experience, little executive experience, and race.

Vice Presidents rarely gain votes for candidates, but they can confirm them. The best recent example is George Bush in 2000. He was also a candidate whose likability was endangered by the sense that he was simply not sure-footed enough for Presidential decisions. The traditional answer to this dilemma is to surround the candidate with those figures. Consider again the example of Bush: the Vice President was Dick Cheney, former Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense. With them at the convention were former Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Colin Powell and former SecDef Donald Rumsfeld. With the exception of Powell, none of these figures were intended to add votes to Bush, but to confirm them. They helped to secure people inclined towards Bush, but who remained wary.

So who could Obama use to do that? To balance himself out, he needs older to his younger, white to his black, establishment to his new, experienced to his original. The intention isn't to whitewash his identity, but to offer the possibility to getting the best of both worlds - Obama's innovations tempered by the knowledge of the past. The current lists are remarkably absent of that. The safe solution which Obama may not feel forced to take (or if he begins to feel desperate may feel forced not to take) is Tom Daschle - He is impeccably Obama's opposite but was still an early supporter of the Senator. His aides and supporters are deeply inserted into his organization. And for more Dick Cheney references, he was even assigned the role of vetting his potential running mates. This doesn't mean he will be chosen, but it does mean that he will almost certainly be considered on his very short list.