Judging from the opinions in the Leftist regions of the blogosphere, the question of who John Kerry will pick for his running mate is unusually important. Some of the front-runners are regarded as disasters: the miserable failure Gephardt and the cipher Vilsack would be huge letdowns. Dean is a non-starter, of course, as would be Clark and Graham for various reasons. Kerry's only real choice at this point is Edwards. He is an affable and inoffensive charmer who won't really cast much of a shadow over Kerry.
But this much is clear: if Kerry's choice is as much of a deal-breaker as I gather, it should be a strong indication of how weak his support really is. If it weren't, then why were the liberals in Big Media so desperately pushing and begging for McCain to join up and make a "dream ticket"? Kerry's supporters see him as too weak to carry the day on his own merits; they very much wanted him to do something to co-opt the moderate Republican and independent vote. But he won't do that now. He'll pick Edwards because it's a safe bet. And no one will be either surprised or disappointed.
I think Edwards is a logical choice, but he is entirely unqualified for the responsibility. Just wait for him to debate Cheney: the Vice President will take him to school.