The Plank

Barack Obama should take James Carville’s suggestion seriously and consider Al Gore as a running mate, writes Dayo Olopade. Gore would be able to navigate the executive branch bureaucracy to further climate change measures, just like Vice President Dick Cheney has on other topics, and he could bring Obama votes in swing states near his Tennessee home, according to Olopade. The left is too concerned about attacks on Michelle Obama, writes Isaac Chotiner. The last time Republicans went directly after a presidential candidate’s wife, in 1992 when the target was a first lady of Arkansas called Hillary Clinton, the attacks didn’t hurt Bill Clinton in the polls, Chotiner writes.