We could be less than three weeks away from a decision

My main political betting activity at the moment is on who Joe Biden is going to choose as his vice presidential nominee. He has to have this in place before the party’s rescheduled convention in middle August but there have been indications that we could know the name by the start of next month.

I should state that my record in betting on Vice presidential nominees has over the years been appalling and I have yet to back a winner going over many decades of elections.

Where this one could be different is that Biden will be 78 on inauguration day if he does win and clearly the chances of whoever he chooses as being his VP nominee and going on to run for the presidency itself must be very high.

The favourite, Senator Kamala Harris of California, is the most well known and for a period last year was the betting favourite for the Presidential nomination. That was not to be and she pulled out before the primaries started.

Biden has said that he will choose a woman and given recent events there must be a high chance that he’ll go for someone with an African American background.

What has been noticeable in recent weeks is how much attention Obama’s former National Security Advisor and then Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, has been getting in the media. She’s a former Rhodes Scholar and so was educated at Oxford and to my mind is the most accomplished of those being named. She comes over very well.

What could be important is her personal link with Biden because they both worked closely together during the eight years of the Obama administration. I just think Joe will pick someone he’s familiar with.

Mike Smithson