Q: Unlike Hillary, who thinks she knows the answers to everything already and has everything figured out, Obama is vague enough so that you aren’t sure whether he might not favor semi-privatization of Social Security or something.

A: If you happened to watch Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” interview from West Chester University with Obama (Wednesday), he came across, as always, as the sort of soul of reasonableness and open-mindedness. He sells himself as an open-minded adjudicator, if you will. I think there are different kinds of presidencies and presidential candidates.

There are the crusader types -- and Hilary would fall into that category. There are the adjudicator types. And the third category would be the custodians, if you will -- the people running for re-election or to follow somebody else’s legacy. Obama is presenting himself as a wise judge. He is a lawyer and he was a law professor and he’s coming across as an open-minded guy. That’s what he’s trying to sell himself as. It will be the task of the Republicans to say, “Uh, uh. You aren’t really that. What you really are is a doctrinaire liberal and look at your voting record and look at what you said.” So that will be a lot of what the election is about -- if he’s the nominee.

Q: Who do you think Obama would pick as vice president?

A: Well, if he’s the nominee -- we keep having to stress that -- he’s not going to pick Hillary. Hillary wouldn’t want it, I don’t think, and he’s not going to pick her. My gut instinct says he needs the anti-Cheney -- or he might think that he needs that. He needs somebody with a military background, a foreign policy background, to help advise him on the world. That’s what the general category would be. ...

I don’t think he necessarily needs to pick a woman. Although some would argue that, I don’t think that’s the case. Unfortunately for him, there aren’t many women who fit in the category of knowledgeable world-leader types. For women, the only one who comes to mind right now is Madeleine Albright and I don’t think he’s going to pick her as vice president. So I don’t know. Strictly a long shot? Somebody like (former South Dakota senator) Tom Daschle, who has been his big adviser and who knows the inside, knows the Senate and knows Washington but who sort of left in a huff, if you will, after being defeated by the Republicans. Just a wild guess.

Q: Any good guesses or wild guesses for McCain’s VP pick?

A: He’s going to be under a lot of pressure to pick (Mitt) Romney. I’m not convinced that he will. But he’s got to pick somebody vigorous. He’s got to pick somebody who knows the economy. He’s got to pick somebody who’s willing to go with the flow with McCain’s management style, which can, shall we say, be idiosyncratic.

Q: If Hillary loses or barely wins Pennsylvania, will it all be over?

A: I can’t make a definitive pronouncement, I’m sorry. But it’s got to be pretty nearly so.