VP Stakes; the Jack Reed Edition

Anonymous Photo of Reed doing an Online Chat with Rhode Island Voters

Another name that has come and gone and come back again on the VP short list is Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed.

Highlights from Wikipedia

Reed resigned from the army in 1979 as a captain and enrolled in Harvard Law School. In 1982, he graduated and served as an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. Afterwards, he returned to Rhode Island and joined Edwards and Angell, a Providence law firm. Reed was elected as a state senator in 1984 and served three terms. In 1990, Reed was elected to the United States House of Representatives. For the next six years, Reed became well known in his state for his positions on education and health care, and when Senator Claiborne Pell announced his retirement in 1996, Reed campaigned to be his replacement and won the election. He was easily reelected to a second term in 2002.

Reed is currently a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Committee. Americans for Democratic Action has often listed him as a "hero" as they indicate he has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.

Reed has military experience, well liked and well known in his state, liberal voting record, and active in education, labor, and health policy.

Downsides, not that well known. Maybe not the strongest balance on the ticket. "Northern Liberal?" that kind of thing.

According to the New Republic;

In office, Reed has focused on important but not always sexy domestic policy issues, like public housing. He's also developed a lot of expertise on education. But mostly he's known for his work on foreign policy and national security. A longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, he has, I am told, the almost-universal respect of both his colleagues from both parties as well as the military brass. When he accompanies Obama to Iraq, it will be his twelfth trip there.

I liked Rhode Island, I like Reed. Your thoughts?

P.S. Reed passed the tlg photo test but the one photo I could find was not open for re-posting; by request from the photographer. So I ran with the Reed chat photo.