With press reports indicating that Obama has closed in on a list of vice presidential finalists,  I thought it would be interesting to study the VP optics, and look at who would look good on TV, has some generational appeal, who sends the best message of change, and so on.  Maybe it comes down to good hair?

Yes, of course issues and policies matter, as well as experience. Does the candidate help bring in a state or region?  How personally compatible will the choice be with Obama. Can they work well together?

Christopher John Dodd is the least obvious choice for Obama’s vice president. Which is why he probably will get the nod.

The obsession with picking a v.p. based on geography, region, or balancing of the ticket, seems quite outdated for this era.  

Marc Ambinder reported on May 27th:

I know that Sen. Chris Dodd wants to be among those vetted by Sen. Barack Obama's veepstakes team, and to that end, the identity of his new chief of staff is interesting. It's Miles Lackey, formerly John Edwards's Senate chief of staff and one of the North Carolinian's closest advisers. It was Mr. Lackey, a National Security Council aide during President Clinton's administration, who Edwards trusted to shepherd him through the vice presidential rigmarole in 2004. Mr. Lackey was successful. He knows the tricks; it was he who arranged a top-secret late-night meeting with John Kerry just a few days before Kerry made his choice. The Edwards family was at Disney World; Lackey figured out how to sneak them up to Washington without a ravenous press corps getting so much of a whiff of the movement.