Barack's VP

The issue has come up in the media the past few days. Barack has several things to weigh on the issue of Vice President.
First, he needs someone who can help him "balance" the ticket. This is an issue for every election and every presidential candidate's VP choice. The nominee presumably has the ability to appeal to certain constituencies and his or her VP should help add some other constituency to his or her campaign. Many times, the Vice Presidential candidate comes from a battleground state.
Second, Barack needs to find someone who is comfortable attacking John McCain. A vice presidential candidate has to be capable of attacking the other party's nominee.
In recent days, several names have come up as suggestions. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California, a Clinton supporter, suggested that Hillary would be the best choice. Chris Matthews of MSNBC has been touting Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for months for either candidate. Other names such as Senator Jim Webb, D- Virginia and the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius. I even heard one show's guest suggest Clinton supporter Tom Vilsack from Iowa would be a good choice.
The argument for Clinton is that a different constituency is voting for her, but she is from New York, which Barack would never lose, and is so hated by republicans that she may hurt Barack more than hurt him.
Rendell and Vilsack are Clinton supporters, which make them an unlikely choice. Webb and Sebelius both have upsides. Webb, a Vietnam veteran, has foreign policy credentials that could give him the credibility to attack McCain, and I wouldn't be opposed to him being the choice. I haven't seen much of Sebelius, so I can't speak for her performance in front of a camera. However, she is from a battleground state and has been a supporter of Barack's.
I would, however, prefer to go out on a limb. A senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill, D-MO, has not been mentioned by some commentators as a possibility. However, she is from a key battleground state (like Webb and Sebelius) but also has an amazing ability for tearing apart political opponents. She has been masterful in her television appearances. In her senate campaign, she ran an ad saying that her opponent killed Superman because he opposed stem cell research. This was probably unfair, but unfortunately, politics has gotten this dirty because it seems to reward tactics that may seem unethical. But since this is the way the game is played, McCaskill has my support for VP.