A reader writes:
Hagel is bad at being a politician. He says what he thinks, and he is often abrasive. He doesn’t care very much about being popular, or making allies. He’s pretty unpopular in Nebraska now — it was widely believed that if he had stood for reelection, he would have lost. He wouldn’t be able to deliver his home state for Obama, either. (Not that Nebraska’s 5 electoral college votes are that vital.)
A VP is really a political deputy. His role in the campaign is to take the hard shots at the other side. If Hagel disagreed with Obama on a tax issue, for example, he’d say so. He wouldn’t be able to go out and sell it. And there would be lots and lots of those disagreements.
It wouldn’t work at all.
The Dish 