Talk of Castro topping Hillary’s veep list generates the first question: “How much experience is really needed to be president of the United States?” — keeping in mind that the vice president’s main duty is to be ready to assume the presidency if the awful-awful were to happen.

Second: “Why is our nation so obsessed with the identity politics of candidates’ race, gender, age and heritage?”

Let’s start by attempting to answer the latter question as it applies to a potential Clinton–Castro ticket.

The unwritten rules of identity politics dictate that Hillary would need a male to “balance” her presidential ticket. Check for Castro. Then the invisible forces behind the rules would pressure Hillary — born in 1947 — to select a much younger running mate. Check for Castro, who was born in 1974. But it’s his Mexican-American heritage that earns Castro a check-check with an exclamation mark.