WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic nomination almost within his grasp, Senator Barack Obama soon will start the next great guessing game in American politics: Who will be his running mate?
Will the Illinois Democrat pick someone with expertise in foreign policy or national defence to offset his lack of experience? A governor from a battleground state with executive experience? How about a former rival -- maybe named Clinton?
Obama won't talk about it yet, even if he's secretly running through the pros and cons of different names. That would appear presumptuous, even arrogant, as long as Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says she's still in the race.
"We haven't wrapped this thing up yet," he said Thursday in an interview with CNN. "At the point where I'm the nominee I'll start going through the process of figuring out what my running mate, who my running mate might be."
Nonetheless, he has started talking like he's looking beyond the primaries to the general election. Analysts agree and note that the first step to the fall campaign is picking a vice-presidential candidate.
"Obama must soon turn to the choice of a running mate," said Gerald Pomper, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Pomper is among those who think Obama needs a national security expert to offset his lack of credentials, much as George W. Bush picked former Defence Secretary Dick Cheney.
He also thinks Obama needs someone who would appeal to the white men he has been losing in primaries.
Pomper's pick: Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.
"In terms of background, Obama's defect is foreign policy, defence policy. Politically, his problem is white males," Pomper said.
"The primaries have shown he has a weakness among white males, a swing group, especially lower income and rural white males. Jim Webb meets both of those problems. His naval career virtually parallels (John) McCain. He's a tough-talking white guy."
Others are looking for more traditional balance, such as picking someone from a must-win state or a different region.
Or Clinton. A group called www.voteboth.com is pushing for what it calls a "dream ticket" of Obama and Clinton. Others are skeptical, saying that a black man and a white woman might be asking voters to buy too much change at once and that Obama apparently doesn't like Clinton.
"If synergy and chemistry are important, having her on the ticket just doesn't work," said South Carolina Democratic strategist Dick Harpootlian, an Obama supporter who wasn't speaking for the campaign. "And where does Bill fit in? It's like three on a date."
-- McClatchy Newspapers
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