Obama's Running Mate

Barack Obama accepted the resignation of the head of his vice presidential search team today.

And Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says he doesn't want to be on the ticket.

Just when the speculation about the identity of Obama's running mate is getting revved up.

It is a "traditional rule" in American politics, writes Michael Barone in U.S. News and World Report, "that the choice of the vice presidential nominee is the sole prerogative of the presidential nominee. This rule is usually invoked in the same hushed tones in which it is noted that the president is commander in chief or that the candidate with a majority of electoral votes becomes president."

This rule is an "anomaly," Barone says. "Some 36 million Americans took part in selecting the Democratic nominee for president. And yet only one person chooses the nominee for vice president, who may turn out to be (as John Tyler was) president for three years and 11 months."

So everyone has an opinion on who the running mate should be.

Camille Paglia writes in Salon.com that Obama's best choice is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

But Paglia is emphatically against the talk that Hillary Clinton should be Obama's running mate.

"I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at the ecstatic media lockstep praising Hillary's so-called concession speech last weekend," Paglia notes. "This is the same herd of sheep who bleated to Bush's beat and brought us the Iraq fiasco."

There's something to be said for that observation.

And in spite of some of the things that have been said and written about Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia -- and he clearly had the most stirring Senate victory in 2006, when he defeated incumbent George Allen -- David Mark says in Politico that there are some things Obama and his staff should know, lest they are tempted to offer the running mate slot to Webb.

Obama has the luxury of time to make this decision. It's too important to rush into it.

Even if the prize of Virginia's electoral votes is being dangled before his eyes.