Wouldn't it be great if Robert Reich could be Bernie's running mate as VP? Yes, Bernie has said that he would most definitely be considered in his cabinet, and I know that this sub doesn't like to talk about VP selections at this point in the campaign, but it would be a great move to do so early.
Pulling pieces from his Wiki page as a "resume" of sorts and adding some comments:
He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. In 2008, Time magazine named him one of the Ten Best Cabinet Members of the century, and The Wall Street Journal in 2008 placed him sixth on its list of the "Most Influential Business Thinkers". He was appointed a member of President-elect Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board.
In his book, The Work of Nations, he argues that a nation's competitiveness depends on the education and skills of its people and the infrastructure that connects them—rather than on the profitability of companies headquartered within it. Private capital, he says, is increasingly global and footloose—while a nation's people—its human capital—constitutes the one resource on which a nation's future standard of living uniquely depends. He urges policy makers to make such public investments the cornerstone of economic policy. Bill Clinton incorporated Reich's thinking into his 1992 campaign platform, "Putting People First," and after being elected, invited Reich to head his economic transition team. Reich later joined the administration as Secretary of Labor. During his tenure, he implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), successfully promoted increasing the minimum wage, successfully lobbied to pass the School-to-Work Jobs Act, and launched a number of job training programs. In addition, Reich used the office as a platform for focusing national attention on the need for American workers to adapt to the new economy. He advocated that the country provide more opportunities for workers to learn more technology.
In 2002, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He also published an associated campaign book, I'll Be Short. Reich was the first Democratic candidate for a major political office to support same-sex marriage. He also pledged support for abortion rights and strongly condemned capital punishment. His campaign staff was largely made up of his Brandeis students. Although his campaign had little funding, he surprised many and came in a close second out of six candidates in the Democratic primary with 25% of the vote. In early 2005, there was speculation that Reich would once again seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. He instead endorsed the then-little-known candidacy of Deval Patrick, who had previously served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration. Patrick won the party's endorsement, a three-way primary with nearly 50% of the vote, and the general election in November 2006.
He's got experience campaigning for office... grassroots campaigning as well. Also, his social policies when running are almost mirror images to Sanders.
Currently Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has also been a contributing editor of The New Republic, The American Prospect (also chairman and founding editor), Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
During the 2008 primaries, Reich published an article that was extremely critical of the Clintons, referring to Bill Clinton's attacks on Barack Obama as "ill-tempered and ill-founded," and accusing the Clintons of waging "a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics." On April 18, 2008 Reich endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.
He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with an A.B. summa cum laude in 1968 and winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford. While at Dartmouth, Reich is reported to have gone on a date with Hillary Rodham, the future Hillary Clinton, then an undergraduate at Wellesley College. While a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Reich first met Bill Clinton, also a Rhodes Scholar. Although he was drafted to serve in the Vietnam war, he did not pass the physical as he was under the required minimum height of five feet. Reich subsequently earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. At Yale, he was classmates with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Clarence Thomas, Michael Medved and Richard Blumenthal.
Sure it's early to get a running mate at this point. But Bernie has the opportunity get his "economy guy" on board and practically joined at the hip and campaigning with him. Pundits and voters love talking about potential running mates, and DO take a lot of stock into them (See: Sara Palin single handidly taking down McCain's campaign). Reich also has got the "establishment outsider" feel which is the talking point of the overall 2016 race so far. The GOP has literally a TV / real estate mogul, a neurosurgeon who left a sponge in a patients head, and an ousted tech firm CEO running and leading the first three spots for the primary!
People don't really like being told what policies and theories they should support. But Mr. Reich can be the voice to help educate the potential voter out there with worries about the national deficit should these programs be enacted. And quite frankly, Bernie doesn't yet go into the far depths of the financials and economic policies of his platform (and he really doesn't have the opportunity to, still needing to introduce himself to new voters). Nor is his tax reform policy in writing yet. But he's going to probably as soon as Tuesday during the first debate. A guy like Mr. Reich would help immensely in this campaign as soon as possible.
