Obama’s VP a ‘He’?

Barack Obama may have revealed the gender of his vice presidential pick during a town hall Tuesday in North Carolina.

Throughout the campaign, the Illinois Democrat has been careful to refer to his unnamed veep as “he or she,” but Obama referred to his running mate to be as “he” during the event.

Answering a question about his energy policy, and dinging President Bush, Obama said, “let me tell you first what I won’t do. I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president, without knowing necessarily what he’s doing.”

“My vice president also will be a member of the executive branch,” Obama said. “He won’t be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he’s above the law.”

Now of course the use of “he” could just be a deferral on Obama’s part to Vice President Dick Cheney, who he takes repeated swings at throughout the remarks. But given that Obama’s short list has reportedly shrunk to three men, the Illinois senator’s choice of pronoun may reveal that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are out of the running.