The year of the attack veep?

Although both of the races are far from finished, there is a reasonably good chance that we'll see a Clinton-McCain or an Obama-MaCain race this Fall. As of late, pundits have been commenting on how relatively friendly Clinton and McCain are, and the candidates themselves have even promised that they'd run a civil race, should they match up against each other. See: http://www.topix.com/news/2008-presidential-election/2008/01/bill-clinton-john-mccain-and-hillary-are-very-close

While Obama may not be on as friendly ground with McCain, Obama has tried to run a different style of campaign and may also want it to appear that he's above the politics of the past.

This all leads me to wonder: will both sides end up picking vice presidential candidates at least partly based on how good they can attack the other side?

If so, this may be an advantage for Joe Biden on the Democratic side and Fred Thompson on the Republican side. Biden is great in this role, and would add foreign policy experience to an Obama ticket. However, he's made comments in the past about not wanting to play third fiddle to Bill Clinton in a Hillary Clinton White House. Thompson's old school style would also serve him well in attack dog mode, and would also help McCain with the conservative base.

Others? Edwards would seem to lose points in the whole attach dog scenario. In 2004, some Kerry campaign advisors seemed disappointed in Edwards' overly cheerful demeanor, while V.P. Dick Cheney hammered away at the Dems (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DA1F30F935A2575AC0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2). I could also easily see Giuliani in full attack mode, as well as Romney, Evan Bayh, and Wesley Clark.

There are plenty of options ... but it remains a strong possibility that whoever this year's veep picks are, they'll have "attack dog" as one of their primary responsibilities.