If Obama had taken Charles W. Dunn’s advice, the Illinois senator would have chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate. In fact, Dunn’s message to Obama was: “You have no choice but to pick Hillary!” Dunn also has some strong opinion about who Sen. John McCain should choose as his vice presidential nominee.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Aug. 27/THE VOICE

Dunn is the dean of the Robertson School of Government at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. Dunn knows a thing or two – or three – about government.

Dunn’s former political posts include serving as a special assistant to the Minority Whip of the United States House of Representatives, deputy director of the Republican Conference in the House, and chief of staff to a United States Senator from New York. He is known as one of the foremost scholars in the field of American politics and religion.

A versatile author and scholar, Dunn has penned several books including The Seven Laws of Presidential Leadership (2007), The Future of Conservatism: Consensus and Conflict in the Post-Reagan Era (2007), The Conservative Tradition in America (co-authored by J. David Woodard) and The Scarlet Thread of Scandal: Morality and the American Presidency.

The Voice magazine caught up with Dunn to discuss the vice presidential scene.

THE VOICE: Why do you feel so strongly that Obama should pick Hillary?

DEAN DUNN: You need the votes she has. And a lot of Clinton supporters will not go for you Obama without Clinton as his vice presidential running mate. Obama absolutely needs those votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan; states where Hillary ran strong. Obama needs her seasoning, her experience.

As this campaign has gone on, we have seen more chinks in the armor of Obama. He has not demonstrated the seasoning, the experience that comes with just being around for a while.

THE VOICE: What’s your opinion of an Obama-Biden ticket?

DEAN DUNN: I know Joe Biden. He is an ethical, Irish man. But Biden from Delaware doesn’t quite do it. Obama has to use the Democratic National Convention to move himself to the center and that’s going to be tough. Obama has a tougher sell with his convention because the delegates are really stacked.

Not only you have all of his delegates, which includes many of the Moveon.org people, but you have a lot of the Hillary delegates who are also the far left, the feminists.

McCain can more easily use his convention to appeal to the center of America than Obama can use his convention to appeal to the center of America.

THE VOICE: What about McCain? What would you advise McCain?

DEAN DUNN: There’s a lot at stake here for McCain in picking the right person. There are many risks, some risks are immediate. Dan Quayle was an immediate risk for the first Bush. Some are long-term risks. Cheney became a long-term risk because of his manner of control and administrative style. Cheney is a good man but his style has really hurt Bush.

There’s various schools of thought about who McCain should pick. There are six or seven criteria, including geographic balance, ideological balance, religious balance, successorship role – and they do not necessarily point to one person.

Say you go with Mitt Romney. He yields some liabilities. If you go with Governor Tim Pawlenty there are pluses there with evangelicals but then he is a convert from Roman Catholicism and that could hurt McCain.

Sometimes its best to go with a candidate who has essentially no name recognition so you take that candidate and devote your resources and money and manpower to creating the name recognition rather than to live with the person who already has the name recognition.

I am hedging here with regard to choices. Mike Huckabee is dynamite. I watch him and I keep looking for him to make a mistake on these talk shows and press conferences. I have yet to see the guy fumble. Balancing age is important for McCain.

McCain is a Washingtonian, being in the Senate and House for all these years. I would think he ought to pick somebody who is from the Hinterland that would help him more with his Straight Talk Express.

Ronald Reagan campaigned against Washington. Jimmy Carter campaigned against Washington in 1976. There’s always that element of electorate that’s anti-Washington. McCain needs to build on that through his Straight Talk express. I would pick a candidate that could really help him with regard to that.

Contact The Voice magazine editor at editor@thevoicemagazine.com or 954-456-6032.