... and a Vote for Sticking With the Message of Change

Barack Obama has a plethora of reasons to reject Hillary Clinton as his running mate, Thomas Schaller writes in Salon, but the most important is consistency: "Obama's decision to cast himself as a fresh alternative to both the Bushes and the Clintons is reason enough for him to choose somebody other than Hillary." Schaller lays out four anti-Clinton arguments and concludes by urging Obama to move quickly.

"If Clinton's supporters—some of whom still nurse hard feelings about the outcome of the primary—are led to believe all summer that she's the leading contender for the vice-presidential nod, and then learn a week before the national convention that Obama has opted for somebody else, those wounds could reopen at the worst moment," he cautions. (More Barack Obama stories.)