Larison responds to my pondering Hagel as an Obama veep:
...it is only thanks to the media’s romance with Hagel over the last year and a half that anyone, much less Obama supporters, would be entertaining the idea of having Hagel on the ticket with Obama. In his administration, maybe, but as Vice President? One reason why this selection strikes me as utterly implausible and also politically ruinous for Obama is that, aside from the war, Hagel is as close to the White House in his voting as anyone in the Senate. This is not a question of his conservatism, of course, but of his consistency in voting with the administration on almost everything. I cannot think of many less suitable running mates for the champion of “turning the page” and breaking with the Bush administration than Hagel. That doesn’t mean that Hagel wouldn’t be a valuable member of an Obama Cabinet, and his foreign policy views are sometimes fairly sensible and they align more with Obama’s than they do with any other candidate’s, but the notion of putting him on the ticket would tend to confirm the most cynical readings of Hagel’s moves in recent years while also detonating whatever credibility Obama may have as a representative of meaningful change.