This One’s Not About Vegas, I Promise
If Obama manages to keep his VP selection secret until the time of his choosing for the announcement I think it could be quite a coup. I think it would actually score him points on the ready to lead board and the better than Bush board. I know it seems an unlikely conclusion to draw.
Bush couldn’t keep much in the way of state secrets very well – there were leaks all over the place, if his White House had been a condo he would have been sued and the place condemned ages ago. The only reason those leaks generally didn’t get attention without help from the Douche Bag of Liberty (cancer doesn’t stop you from being a douche) was because 9/11 scared the media into submission. But thankfully over the last few years the media has woken from its slumber and is starting to think critically again. Well, except for Fox News of course but if they became non-partisan I’d start reading Nostradamus for surely the end would be nigh.
If Obama can control this information it shows both his ability to effectively lead a large complex political team and that he has and can select quality trustworthy people to surround himself with. There are plenty of incentives for anyone in the know to leak the name of his VP. They might even think they’re doing him a favour. And following Bush, the guy who created the department with the most political appointees in history (see: political patronage), the guy who consistently selected, hired, promoted, and appointed people on grounds other than ability, the guy whose inability to keep a secret or safeguard the citizens is frankly legendary this shows a stark contrast.
This would say that an Obama White House could keep a secret, when it’s in the nation’s best and still legal interests such as protecting the identity of a CIA covert agent whose spouse publicly disagrees with you. Vetting the VP, keeping the selection secret and controlling the flow of information is a fantastic test run for many presidential issues like writing policy and addressing international conflict. Having a skilled, informed, intelligent team, preventing harmful leaks, and controlling the flow of information is critical in those cases and can make the difference between success and failure; a bill passed into law or not, a conflict avoided or war begun.
It may not seem like much but the stage managing of this can be considered one of those hypothetical commander-in-chief tests on some levels.
