An Obama/Biden ticket would be alright. Biden would soften the lack of experience meme, and by being Veep would be free to make risky, Biden-like comments without incurring the blowback he would as the frontman.

That would be ridiculous for Biden, to take the second spot to one of the most inexperienced and shallow candidates sinch GW Bush would be a fate worse than death for somebody of Biden's stature.

Oh come on! When has that ever happened?

Well it does fill up some bandwidth at least...

It certainly is.

Come on, Barack Obama has more "stature" from his days at Harvard, as an activist in Chicago and in the Illinois State Senate than Joe the-Neil-Kinnock-plagiarist-Anita-Hill-harrasser Biden will accrue in a lifetime of sitting on Senate committees. Stature is something you grow into, not a quality you get just because you've been running a losing presidential campaign since 1987 or whatever.

Since when is this kind of thing news, as opposed to a planted story by someone trying to push their candidate -- in this case Obama. And even if it had substance, who the hell cares who the vp candidate is, unless the main man is a moron, as currently? And who could possibly give credence to such a story at this point, when the outcome in Iowa is totally unknown?

Once in a while it would be nice if something simply didn't get reported on grounds that it is garbage!!

Yeah, I mean, who can imagine a person with decades of beltway experience stepping in as VP behind a newcomer that doesn't really have a handle on things?

Wait, that sounds remarkably similar to the last seven years.

Nope, this sounds like what all elections should be like to me.... local communities and friends and neighbors make group decisions. It's the lonely isolated voter alone with his conscience in the voting booth that is the problem. Why should decision making NOT be social and communal? Why this constant advocacy for the hyper individualistic model of voting?

"So in the end, last weekend's poker game in Elk Run Heights might wind up mattering more than whatever Biden campaign manager Luis Navarro whispers to Obama's David Plouffe. Yeah, that sounds like a pretty crazy way to run an election. "

Nope, that's just the way I'd like all elections to work, thank you.

Quoting Howie Mandel is NOT cool.

I said I'd like them all to be like that... not really.

But communal decision making is ENTIRELY appropriate for members of a single political party, who are allies working for the same common goals.

In a competitive non primary election, the privacy of a voting booth has much to value.

Since it's clearly paid placement agitprop. Reading Salon is like reading the back of section A of the WSJ in terms of getting 'truth'. It's not even op-ed, it's stealth advertising.

Just when we need change it looks like we're going to end up with the shallow, arrogant and cliche-ridden Obama.

And your journalists should learn how to use the word 'whom' correctly.

Obama is not going to get the nomination, he probably won't even "win" Iowa, and I'd be a thousand bucks that even if he did win the nomination he won't win, he'd lose the GE.

He's a ringer for the GOP, guys. It's too bad his supporters don't have any sense of reality.

I can vouch for the Richardson part, anyway, as an Iowa Obama precinct captain. It makes sense for "extra" Obama supporters to help Richardson capture delegates that would otherwise go to Hillary or Edwards.

Richardson's hope of actually winning the nomination requires that Hillary the conventional candidate be removed from the field. Obama is the only person who can stop her. Hence Richardson should help Obama take delegates from Hillary and Edwards if it doesn't hurt his own numbers.

This is a deal that makes total sense for both candidates. Nothing underhanded about it. BTW, the VP talk is way too early.

Obama is going to win big time in Iowa. If everyone in my town of 8000 voted, he would win going away. The caucus process will limit the size of his victory.

I am stunned at how many of his supporters who are first-timers, independents and Republicans. If half the number who have told me face-to-face in the last three days actually show up at the caucus, they will swamp the volunteers running the system.

Barack Obama's effort in Iowa shows he would be an outstanding Democratic candidate. He has built on his community organizing experience and he now has the skills and vision to win AND create a large DEMOCRATIC majority for the future.

Three hours left! Go Obama!!

Does anybody really think that most of the Kucinich supporters will go to Obama because Dennis said so. It is not hard to imagine more likely candidates for their support as well as the supporters of Biden, Dodd and Richardson. How many caucus-goers are basically Anybody-but-Hilary? Obama will benefit from that and so will Edwards.

...and Salon Premium member!

Now that it's over I'll say that we had no instructions to go to ANY other candidate if we were not viable, but rather to try and band together with any other non-viable groups to get "undecided" a delegate. Barring that, the only candidate we were to NOT support was Richardson, on the theory that there was only one second-tier ticket out of Iowa.