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The Note: Anxious Dems Await Obama Pick
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ShareAugust 19, 2008 8:33 AM
ABC News' Rick Klein reports in Tuesday's Note: Three questions smart Democrats are asking:
1. Where on the scale of strategy/caution/indecisiveness do we plot the fact that Sen. Barack Obama does not at this moment have a running mate? (And where on the scale of party worry/frustration/panic do Democrats stand with a new poll showing Obama facing a 2-1 gap on handling Russia?)
2. What hole in his resume will Obama seek to fill with his choice? (And how will the rollout avoid highlighting a weakness?)
3. What was in the shave ice that brought a new candidate back to the contiguous 48? (And will it wear out?)
Three questions smart Republicans are asking:
1. What is it about Sen. John McCain’s scheduled visits to offshore oil rigs that causes tropical disturbances? (And how many more topical disturbances dogging McCain fundraisers?)
2. What will a *fourth Woodward book* on the Bush presidency mean for the man who’s carrying his party banner? (And does McCain’s family have any other *disinherited siblings* we didn’t know about?)
3. Can McCain stomach the choice that probably makes the most electoral sense for him? (And/or will he test the stomach of his party base?)
Keep your mobile devices charged: Obama’s running-mate decision -- as reported by The New York Times, and announced (how else?) by The Drudge Report -- is “all but settled,” with the most anticipated text message since Paris had her cell stolen to come “as soon as Wednesday morning.”
(But more like Friday -- when Obama is down in Chicago, and can make an easy trip to Springfield, Ill., should he feel the urge.)
Read the rest of The Note -- and get all the latest on the 2008 election, Congress, the White House and the wide world of politics every day -- from Rick Klein by bookmarking this link.
We know the names by now, and so does Obama: “By all indications, Mr. Obama is likely to choose someone relatively safe and avoid taking a chance with a game-changing selection,” Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny write in The New York Times. “Mr. Obama and his running mate will begin, perhaps that day, a visit to swing states. Plans call for them to be on the trail together for much of the time between the day of the announcement and the day Mr. Obama arrives in Denver, a week from Wednesday, but their most intense campaigning together will come after the convention.”
ABC’s Jake Tapper reports that Obama has told “less than a half dozen” of his aides whom he has picked. The announcement is expected “at the end of this week,” with a swing-state tour to follow.
Unless the timing slips: “There are signs that Obama may wait to announce his choice until this weekend or just before in hopes of providing a big boost before the convention opens Monday in Denver,” Dan Balz reports in The Washington Post.
Is it all about the Clintons -- even in the timing? “In addition to giving some convention-eve energy to Obama's campaign, a late-in-the-week rollout would have another benefit in the eyes of his loyalists. It could help overshadow the other dominant story heading into Denver, which is the long-running drama over how Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and Clinton's supporters will handle themselves during the week,” Balz writes.
“There's an outside chance the nod could come as soon as Wednesday, but sources indicated Monday that the planning was still fluid, and later was more likely,” Ken Bazinet and Michael McAuliff report in the New York Daily News.
Mark Halperin makes a pick at The Page: “Say it is so, Joe,” he writes Tuesday morning.
Balz hears there’s five veepstakes finalists: You know Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Tim Kaine, and Sebelius, and toss in either Chris Dodd, Jack Reed, or Bill Richardson -- or even, just maybe, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Why is that this rumor won’t go away?: “No power brokers in the Democratic Party are openly campaigning for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as their vice-presidential nominee this year, and even Mrs. Clinton’s closest aides have stopped talking her up. Yet privately, some Democrats continue to see her as exactly the partner that Senator Barack Obama needs,” Patrick Healy writes in The New York Times.
Continue reading today's Note by clicking HERE.
ABC News' Hope Ditto and Amanda Temple contributed to this report.
August 19, 2008 in Biden, Joe, Bush, George W., Hunter, Duncan, Kucinich, Dennis, Palin, Sarah, Romney, Mitt, Tancredo, Tom, Thompson, Fred, Veepstakes | Permalink | User Comments (40)
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I don't see how he picks someone from the senate; he can't afford to lose any votes there. He needs someone from the military, or someone who has military/foreign affairs expertise.
Posted by: Richard | Aug 19, 2008 8:55:34 AM
The more people put pressure on Obama to pick Hillary, the least likely he is to pick her, period.
Posted by: carl29 | Aug 19, 2008 9:00:35 AM
I don't care who Obama picks. I wouldn't vote for an Obama/Clinton ticket, and I wouldn't vote for a Clinton/Obama ticket. Don't like the way I vote? Tough, baby. I don't like being called a racist. Wah, wah, wah.
Posted by: Can't I Just Eat My Waffle? | Aug 19, 2008 9:17:19 AM
The only way this bloke has any hope of taking the whitehouse is if he picks Clinton. Period.
Posted by: Stresscrete | Aug 19, 2008 9:23:30 AM
Who cares. Obama is in a free fall.
Posted by: geevill | Aug 19, 2008 9:30:49 AM
I will be happy to know who the pick is, but mainly so we will be one step closer to the end of this show. I don't care who the person is since the top of the ticket is who I don't believe or trust.
Posted by: tiredtoo | Aug 19, 2008 9:44:12 AM
Maybe it will be Gore. Where is he btw.
Posted by: annie | Aug 19, 2008 10:21:00 AM
I'm guessing Obama picks Bayh, but still holding out hope for Tony Zinni. Kathleen Sebelius wouldn't be bad, either. Though neither Bayh nor Sebelius seem like natural attack dogs, which Obama might need to call out McCain on some of his silliness.
Whoever Obama picks, I'm sure it won't be someone who feels the need to pretend events from Russian literature happened to him or her.
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008 11:14:09 AM
Won't be Biden..Instead of being on the Senate floor fixing our energy problems with the repbubs, he was on vacation in Georgia, (country of) committing 1 Billion dollars of tax payer's money for reconstruction and aid...shouldn't that be the Russian's responsibility??? Thus the games begin
Posted by: CuriousIndep | Aug 19, 2008 12:24:26 PM
CuriousIndep - that's a good point.
Why is it when we destroy a country its our responsibility to rebuild it but its also our responsibility to rebuild the countries that are destroyed by other attackers?
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008 12:31:54 PM
Why is it when we destroy a country its our responsibility to rebuild it but its also our responsibility to rebuild the countries that are destroyed by other attackers?
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008
----
Because 0-bama has been used to affirmative actions.
Posted by: Boneheaded, from Chicago | Aug 19, 2008 1:11:58 PM
Though, Geevil, I agree that Biden may be a problemmatic pick for Obama. Clearly a smart guy, clearly knows what he's talking about... but there's a lot of odd quotes out there from him.
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008 1:25:29 PM
Drama Obama at his best - if he's made a decision then say it. He is quite the spotlight attention seeker. Duh - we all know it is Biden - say it. This just enhances that "wimpy" aspect that many see, like he's afraid to say the name in case he wants to change his mind. We got a good example of that Saturday night.
Posted by: McCain Democrat | Aug 19, 2008 1:34:09 PM
Interesting post from Domingo at 1:37.
My thoughts on Nobama picking a #2 is everyone of his choices will be more deserving and stronger than he is....it will be so easy to upstage him....Biden for sure will out smart/speak him and look more commanding. Bayh seems wimpish (and was a big Hillary supporter), so maybe he should go that route. Hillary would out dazzle Nobama, just about everyone on his list could. Doesn't matter to me....HILLARY SUPPORTER FOR McCAIN!
Posted by: Debra | Aug 19, 2008 2:15:03 PM
It would be awesome if he picked Hillary as sec of state.
If Bill and PUMA could have kept their mouths shut this might have been a different situation.
sad.
An oBama /Biden / Clinton team would be one force to be reckoned with on the world platform.
Posted by: dl | Aug 19, 2008 2:23:10 PM
You all need to go see what Biden has done in the last 6 months in congress with all of this drivel...
go read his oped's in the washington and financial times...
the guy gets it better than anybody in Washington...
hands down...
and like McCain ...America doesn't care about his mouth or gaffes...or ego... they care that he is by far ...heads and tails the best guy for the job
and it shows that Obama is smart for picking him.
Period.
Posted by: dl | Aug 19, 2008 2:29:08 PM
Biden carries too much baggage..he's a hot head and can't keep his mouth shut..Obama like McCain, will pick someone safe, someone that can be controlled. The prime is too pick someone WHO IS NOT GOING TO HURT YOU...
Posted by: CuriousIndep | Aug 19, 2008 2:36:02 PM
Do Republicans ever get it right? Well, maybe.
In 2000, they told us McCain wasn't a stable guy.
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008 2:56:32 PM
paul...and Obama used to carry a straw around in his back pocket...are you comfortable with that??? Me, I am not comfortable with either one.
Posted by: CuriousIndep | Aug 19, 2008 3:07:45 PM
Curious - not familiar with the straw. What's that all about?
Posted by: Paul | Aug 19, 2008 3:22:57 PM
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