Should Clinton Go Left or Right for a VP?

A lobby effort to make Elizabeth Warren the vice presidential nominee with Hillary Clinton has gained considerable momentum since the June 7 California primary. Numerous arguments are made to advance her interests, but the case chiefly resides on Clinton’s need to calm the left at the convention and attract Bernie Sanders’s constituency, especially his Millennial supporters in November. These were a few million young voters who preferred Sanders 4-and-5-to-one over Clinton and made him a winner, especially in numerous low turnout caucus states like Colorado.

But does Clinton need to placate the left, especially Millennial voters? Is she hurt running with the country’s farthest left, high-profile politician outside of Sanders; i.e., Elizabeth Warren?

An examination of polls since the California primary, which Clinton is winning over Trump, makes clear her biggest challenge is White men, the one group he dominates, not 26 year olds. In a recent swing state Colorado poll by Ciruli Associates in the Denver metro area (56% of the state’s likely voters), Clinton needs help with Anglo men of Baby Boomer age much more than women, minorities or Millennials.

Would Clinton be better served contrasting her personal shift to the left on a number of issues with a more centrist running mate? And would appealing to Anglo men of middle and Baby Boom age be a better target audience for the vice president selection?