Still stuck on Pelosi for Obama ticket

Even though no political pundit has mentioned her name, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains the best choice as VP for Sen. Barack Obama's ticket.

And the stakes are now much higher for her selection with the mounting national security problem of Israel conducting a dry run on knocking out Iran's nuclear bomb capability. The Middle East could become a bigger mess and transform $4 a gallon for gas into the good ol' days.

I take new motivation for going out on the political limb from a conversation I had today with two female voters under 40 in the checkout line at Harris-Teeter. They voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton. While already being a bit leery about Obama's depth of experience, they're now most concerned about national security. And that gives McCain an edge in their minds.

So I trotted out Pelosi's name to them. Initially they responded that putting a woman into the vice presidency would not be enough to vote for Obama. But when I cited Pelosi's national security experience, they were enthused.

Pelosi has been to Syria, Iraq and Tibet. She has received confidential national security briefings all this decade. She has driven the effort in the House to stop the Iraq war.

Naysayers who laugh at my audacity to think beyond the Sunday morning political punditry say that Pelosi doesn't want to leave the House with all the seats the Democrats will pick up in the general election. She'll be even more powerful than before.

Then there is her age. She's just a few years behind John McCain. So she'll have no chance to follow Obama after four or eight years. Why give up a sure thing for the possibility of not winning in the general election?

But if she is a loyal Democrat committed to change, she'll accept the VP nod because Obama needs a lot of help to get elected. The experience question about Obama will not go away, even if he picks first-term Sen. Webb of Virginia or long-forgotten Sen. Sam Nunn. Any of the female governors available won't bring any national security experience.

Gov. Bill Richardson, who has tons of foreign policy experience, has the baggage of being and looking Hispanic. Running on a ticket with another minority would be a nightmare for too many white voters. Change is one thing, but that would be ... well, unimaginable, even for an Oliver Stone movie. Some folks are looking for an excuse not to vote for a black man. Putting a brown man with Obama will seal the sentiment at the ballot box.

Pelosi can be replaced in the House to lead the Democratic majority. As Senate president, she'll wield power before that body as a tie-breaking vote and can ram through Obama's legislative agenda in both houses from a Capitol office. She also is Catholic, which will help Obama in the must-win states of Ohio and Pennsylvania and with Mexican-American voters in the West swing states of Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

There's another intangible that makes her choice a real possibility. Caroline Kennedy is part of Obama's VP selection group. She has distinguished herself in the Democratic primary season. And she has the inherited insight to produce a visionary, effective choice.

But none of the Beltway pundits are mentioning Pelosi as a possibility. Does that automatically dismiss her as a choice, or make her chances even better? The female voters in the Harris-Teeter checkout line give me the confidence to continue out on the political limb.