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Obama's VP Short-List Shortcomings
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ShareJuly 29, 2008 4:31 PM
ABC News' Jan Crawford Greenburg and Howard L. Rosenberg report: Since he arrived back in Washington D.C. early Monday, Sen. Barack Obama has spent hours with the co-chairs of his vice presidential committee search team -- Caroline Kennedy and attorney Eric Holder.
On Monday night, Kennedy was the draw to a $1,000-a-head Georgetown fundraiser and today, rumors are swirling, thanks to an anonymously sourced Washington Post story, that Obama has settled on Virginia's Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. But all of Obama's potential "short list" names have their own shortcomings.
Let's start with the flavor of the day: Kaine.
Kaine and Obama have forged a friendship since Kaine became the first governor outside of Illinois to endorse the Senator. They share family roots in Kansas and Harvard law degrees. Yet, though Kaine is firmly on Obama’s shortlist of potential running mates, the 50-year-old Catholic has his own deficits.
He is a liberal-leaning Democrat from a mid-sized, conservative swing state who won election to the statehouse only three years ago. Before that he was mayor of Richmond, a mid-sized, insular Southern city that prides itself on having been the capital of the Confederacy. He has no foreign policy or defense experience, a credential deficit for which Obama has been criticized too. And he is virtually unknown on the national stage.
The other top contenders -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- are all sitting senators.
But picking Bayh could complicate Democratic plans to try and win a 60-vote cloture-proof majority in the Senate. If an Obama - Bayh ticket won in November, there's a chance a Republican governor could replace Bayh in the Senate.
In Indiana, the statehouse is contested. If a Republican wins, he would take office before Bayh is inaugurated.
In Delaware, Sen. Joe Biden has a Senate seat for life if he wants it, and he could shore up Obama’s own foreign policy shortcomings anyway as Secretary of State. The governor of Delaware, Ruth Ann Minner, is a Democrat, so his seat would stay on that side of the aisle if he gets the V.P. nod.
But some Democrats worry he can be a loose cannon -- and are concerned his selection could also concede the point that Obama, in fact, needs a senior VP with foreign policy experience to shore him up.
Most observers believe that Obama’s statement on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that Sen. Clinton “would be on anybody’s short list” of VP candidates was just a sop to her constituency.
And complicating the equation in the senate of course is the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman who now calls himself an Independent Democrat and caucuses with the party.
But if Lieberman speaks at the Republican Convention as rumored, staffers in the senate say the Democrats plan to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, kick him out of the party caucus and he will, for all intents and purposes, become a Republican.
July 29, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (209)
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Well they are already kicking ELECTED Clinton delegates out of the party.
Posted by: geevill | Jul 29, 2008 4:34:28 PM
A Clinton delegate was kicked out.....FOR VOTING FOR MCCAIN....The democrats have an absolute right to kick out a delegate if they don't abide by the rules.
Posted by: Chris | Jul 29, 2008 4:44:21 PM
In addition, Biden is not too old, but not too young. He looks very good on camera and does a fantastic job as surrogate. He really knows how to push back those Republican smears. My pick: Joe Biden.
Posted by: carl29 | Jul 29, 2008 4:55:17 PM
obama/hagel 08
Posted by: angie | Jul 29, 2008 4:57:32 PM
Lieberman is the kiss of death for either party.
Posted by: SJDelaney | Jul 29, 2008 5:00:41 PM
Believe me, HRC supporters know when they're/we're being dismissed, with a pat on our collective little female heads, which are too filled with fluff to know when we're being patronized.
The Great Obama better watch how he handles this whole thing. No one likes being patronized. People won't automatically shift their allegiance -- and their votes -- from her to him. Those votes should NOT be taken for granted.
Posted by: Beth | Jul 29, 2008 5:12:54 PM
No like Bush.
Posted by: Jose | Jul 29, 2008 5:21:56 PM
BOTTOM LINE, IF OBAMA DOESNT PICK HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON AS THE VP AND HIS RUNNING MATE HE IS FINISHED. ENJOY HIS LAST 13 WEEKS OF FAME.THAT WILL BE THE LAST STRAW FOR ME. A DEVOTED HILLARY SUPPORTER AND ALWAYS WILL BE. CANT HARDLY WAIT TO SEE WHO HE PICKS. I WILL EITHER NOT VOTE OR VOTE MCCAIN. MY WHOLE FAMILY AND FRIENDS FEEL THE SAME WAY. AND WE ARE ALL FROM THE GREAT SWING STATE OF OHIO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: JUDITH MARTIN | Jul 29, 2008 5:25:58 PM
I like Biden, Clark or even Colin Powell.
Posted by: becky | Jul 29, 2008 5:26:58 PM
Oh I am weary of the "Judith Martin" types on these blogs. Either you are a democrat or you aren't - anybody who would vote for McCain over sour grapes is NOT a democrat - they are a spoiled child who shouldn't be allowed to vote at all. That's why you have to be 18. Supposed to be limited to adults!
Posted by: Nancy | Jul 29, 2008 5:30:32 PM
Obama had better find the most popular Democratic politician in Ohio and make him his VP. Without Ohio, his chances of becoming President are about 50/50. With Ohio, he is a lock.
Posted by: JRS | Jul 29, 2008 5:30:37 PM
I wonder if there isn't a below the radar candidate around somewhere? I think of the candidates discussed here Bayh is the most likely, but I still think there is a possibility of someone jumping out of the woodwork.
I like Biden but I think he is probably too much like McCain in the trivialities (experienced, slightly maverick, foreign policy expert) to get the nod. Also I am not sure that Obama really needs FP help as much as economy help. I think thats what puts Bayh at the top of the list right now. Biden as SofS maybe. Also it seems like Bill Richardson has gotten forgotten in some of these discussions.
Posted by: markymark | Jul 29, 2008 5:33:31 PM
I really am sick to my stomach that Obama would pick...would even think of picking Kaine.
Do they realize that this is one of the only choices they could make that REALLY hurts them.
I know people have been talking about him but Kaine
oy
No foreign Policy
No national platform issue experience at all
No national debate experience
A mixed bag governorship
ANTI-CHOICE...are you kidding me.
and I just heard theat kaine cancelled his event tomorrow...I am going to throw up...
all the work people put in ...I can not imagine he would be this
I can't until he announces I need to back up and remind myself thta the guy we supported would never pick Kaine as his VP to go up against McCain.
Posted by: dl | Jul 29, 2008 5:35:29 PM
As a Hillary Democrat, I do not care who is Obama's VP. I voted for Hillary in the Virginia election, and I am disgusted with this party. Now part of John's silent majority, we wait patiently for November.
Posted by: benvictor | Jul 29, 2008 5:45:04 PM
I'm from Missouri and Obama is going to have to "Show Me" Clinton as a running mate, or I will vote against him.
Posted by: Cardsgal | Jul 29, 2008 5:47:57 PM
dl, sounds like most of kaine's experience would match Obama's experience. What is the problem here, of course he might have too much experience for Obama.
Posted by: billy bob | Jul 29, 2008 5:49:57 PM
Notwithstanding that the 2000 and 2004 selections were both frauded and the DEMOCRATS likely won both, each had terrible VP picks as we look back. As Lieberman has morphed into whatever you would like to call him today, you would be shocked that he was Al Gores VP pick who failed at his one anointed task, to bring Florida onboard in 2000. In hindsight, we now see how bad John Edwards was as Kerrys pick, who undoubtedly forced Kerry to play HAPPY SMILE in the face of SWIFT BOAT attacks that actually helped the USA elect a National Guard shirk while dumping on a combat veteran. That Vietnam thingie just don't sit well with true military persons, I suppose. Just as the Clintons may have helped torpedo Gores chances to help see Hillary get the nod, perhaps Edwards also did not care so much for Kerry winning, as Edwards 2008 bid was mostly NUMERO UNO in his mind. Now that Hillary has been rebuffed for 2008 I hope she remains in the Senate to help the USA recover, but she has some baggage which includes being a democratic war monger along with BIDEN, and was and maybe still is a member of a semi-secret right wing religious group called the FELLOWSHIP where she meets with ladies like the wives of JAMES BAKER, JACK KEMP, and ENNIS BAAKE. Edwards, who as his first act as our Senator from my state, NC, pumped money and computers into IOWA for his planned bid for the office I like to term, PRECEDENT, due to what the current occupant did to said office, can find comfort with his mistress and hopefully not confront his wife on her hospital bed with divorce papers. Point of my post...I hope neither Hillary or Edwards are asked to serve in any Cabinet posts in the upcoming Obama PRESIDENCY, or the term I trust him to restore said office to.
Posted by: daddyblue | Jul 29, 2008 5:53:50 PM
ME ME ME ME! I like that crying like hillary cut off your nose to spite your face. Hillary should have dropped out after super tues. She's not even in it and you can't get rid of her. It's like a bad rash! LOL!!!
Posted by: Joe | Jul 29, 2008 5:55:20 PM
Just imagine a Kaine/Ridge debate...
(now that Kaine has cancelled his event tomorrow for "some" reason.
you probably can't picture a debate...because who knows what this guy will be like...he was bad on the freakin dem rebuttal he did, never mind a national debate.
but now imagine a
McCain/Ridge ticket vs.
Obama Kaine
it is suddenly and inherently about national defense , foreign policy and security...
and experience...
and Obama's choice for VP.
there is a little bounce in Virginia (one that is close to what we would have had just having the dem governor campaign there)
we lose PA and Ohio...and mayb emichigan
and whatever little bumb we got in Virginia dissipates from the overhwhelming difference in Macho security chutzpah...against a half inspirational and smart ticket of someone we all think is really smart besides the choice he made of his right hand man.
oy
lets hope Kaine was cancelling his baseball event tomorrow because he needed to rest.
Posted by: dl | Jul 29, 2008 5:55:37 PM
You Hillary supporters sound bitter. Cling to guns and religion much? I hope he picks anybody for VP but Hillary.
Posted by: Ericka | Jul 29, 2008 5:56:51 PM
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