another potential veep tells bammy, "no thanks""- Page 2

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 3:01pm

that and she covertly promised to release long rumored dvd of her and lynne cheney: "no man's land: executive privilege"

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/16/08 at 8:53am

today it's jack reed. there's gonna be no one left but hillary.
no freakin' way, bammy

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 5:59am

bill bradley takes himself out of a contest no one had him in anyway.
one less potential

[tazber]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 6:51am

I read yesterday that Tim Kaine (VA) was high on his list.

Tim Kaine is an ineffective, inexperienced, disaster of a govenor.

Updated On: 7/29/08 at 06:51 AM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 6:56am

a perfect choice to keep the spotlight where they want it: on bammy.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 7:38am

The Washington Post agrees with you, Taz...

"Kaine remains popular in Virginia, but he has had trouble dealing with Republicans and has no single defining achievement to point to on the campaign trail.

In 2005, the major issue Republicans took aim at was his opposition to the death penalty, but since becoming governor, Kaine has declined to stop several executions."

http://tinyurl.com/68rzbk


Meanwhile, Sen. Claire McKaskill says she thinks all the "no thanks" are disingenuous...

“Well, you know, I’d like to meet somebody who wouldn’t. If they’re saying they wouldn’t, I don’t think that they are being as candid or as up front with the American people as possible.”

http://tinyurl.com/5alaqz

I don't really know enough about McKaskill to judge whether she'd be a good choice herself.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 8:03am

It'll be Hillary.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 8:53am

wow, claire, see if you can't get your entire head up bammy's bum.

"gee, mr. bammy, i would never refuse such a generous offer if you were to make it to me, unlike those liars who are saying they don't want it."

she's a joke and rapidly losing what little stature she had with comments like this. i'm sure none of these people will remember when li'l claire decided to call them liars.

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 11:30am

It'll be Hillary.

I feel like we've all heard you say this before. How'd it turn out the last time?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 12:03pm

She won the popular vote ;-}

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 12:30pm

How can she declare a popular vote win when not all popular vote counts were released?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 12:34pm

Eeeenyways, back to the issue. Salon.com's pundit weighs in:



Shall we have a bit of fun with the Democratic veepstakes? The Washington Post reports that four people sit atop Barack Obama’s shortlist: Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Not that the campaign is asking, but my rank-order preferences are Kaine, Bayh, Biden and then Sebelius, the reasons for which I provide below.

As for why I have Kaine first, he brings a swing state and he showed loyalty early on as the first (non-Illinois) statewide-elected Democrat to endorse Obama. Though some of Bayh's social positions and DLC-style conservatism worry me, as the 2006 midterms proved, Indiana is in flux and if you couple the spillover effect of the Chicago media market into the northern part of the state with Bayh’s potential appeal elsewhere in the Hoosier state, those nine electoral votes look very tempting and Bayh as veep could be the difference. There are plenty of senior senators to choose from, and Biden is probably harmless, but he is just too chatty and thus risky, and Delaware is a lock anyway. Finally, though I think Obama will post competitive numbers in states like Kansas and the Dakotas, even if he wins none of them, as I said Monday I just don’t think it is wise for Obama to pick a non-Hillary woman, which is why, despite her many appealing attributes (and the whole white mother from Kansas thang), I place Sebelius fourth.

― Thomas Schaller

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 12:36pm

Oh wait, i forgot, it's hilary clinton, she can declare anything she wants and her Heaven's Gate like followers will believe it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 12:57pm

I must admit, I'm befuddled by all the Kaine buzz.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 1:04pm

He seems like the worst possible choice.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 1:11pm

kaine is vanilla. he's a bland, non-threatening white male. there's no chance that he will ever overshadow bammy in any way, so he's the perfect choice not to dilute the bammy brand image. i mean if he has to have a running mate and cannot simply get elected and then appoint whoever he wants.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 1:55pm

Guys! Even though he writes exactly like Liverpool and has the same opinions, Chance is not not not not not Liverpool!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 1:58pm

Oooh Papa you think they will make buttons that say "Chocolate and Vanilla!"

Apparently his biggest asset is that he & Barack get along well. I can't help but think this is yet another trial balloon and the real choice is yet to be mentioned.

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 2:05pm

I'm down with the swirl.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 2:07pm

If he's looking for a gov, I think Schweizer from Montana is a better choice than Kaine. He has a similar resume in that he hasn't been a governor too long, but he has more accomplishments in his tenure than Kaine. His name had been mentioned a while ago, but he seems to have fallen off the radar.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 2:15pm

Howard Fineman's take on the merits of Kaine...

http://tinyurl.com/66sd32

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 2:23pm

Meh, if he's looking for an inoffensive white man, just got with Kulongoski. He's fiscally responsible, environmentally responsible and pro-education.

In 1980 8 people at the Convention thought he should be the VP nominee.

He reformed workman's comp in oregon while he was insurance commissioner.

He's been a state attorney general and served on state supreme court

Plus, he's been accused by members of his own party (challengers during gubernatorial primaries) of not being enough of a democrat. he seems like the perfect person to not overshadow obama (as likely no one outside of oregon has heard of him) but to also reach out to independents and moderates.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 5:02pm

Joan Walsh, salon.com weights in:

Barack Obama is said to be edging closer to picking a running mate, and this week there's a miniboom behind the potential candidacies of Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. Tom Schaller runs it all down here. Obama visited veep vetter Eric Holder's office for a second time in two days, raising the volume on speculation about his coming pick.

Both men's prominence in the veepstakes reflects an ancient vision of the ideal running mate: that he can help the candidate pull in a swing state he couldn't win on his own. Of course, that hasn't worked since John F. Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson in 1960 and carried Texas, and it's not clear it will work now with either Bayh or Kaine on the ticket. Unlike Schaller, I'm not a fan of either man's running with Obama. It's clear they would provide balance in one way: Where Obama is charismatic and inspiring, they're both fairly charisma-free, so there would be no dangerous charisma overload when they appeared together Aug. 28 at Invesco Field in Denver. Beyond that, I don't see their appeal.

Kaine offers Obama no foreign policy experience -- and little experience generally. I don't see how a first-term senator picks a first-term governor, with no national reputation, as his running mate. By contrast, Bayh is viewed as having foreign policy credentials, but to my mind, they're mostly bad. I vividly remember his heinous argument for why Democrats had to support the Iraq war in October 2002: "The majority of the American people tend to trust the Republican Party more on issues involving national security and defense than they do the Democratic Party," he told Fox News back then. "We need to work to improve our image on that score by taking a more aggressive posture with regard to Iraq, empowering the president." That showed good judgment. I'm sure Hillary Clinton, among other Democrats, is sorry she listened to Bayh. No matter whom Obama picks, there will be plenty of chances for reporters to scour the archives and find "gotcha" quotes, in which he or she disagreed with the Democratic nominee, but Iraq is a particularly troublesome example.

Kaine creates comparable problems for Obama with the Democratic base when it comes to the issue of abortion. A Roman Catholic, he is antiabortion, though he says he prefers expanding women's access to contraception and healthcare over criminalizing them and their doctors (though he does support a late-term abortion ban, as does Bayh). Given that one of Obama's top arguments to lure fence-sitting female Hillary Clinton supporters has been John McCain's antichoice stance, both Kaine and Bayh would seem to hurt Obama on that score.

Like a lot of Democrats, I was surprised and sorry to read Adam Nagourney's piece in the New York Times today suggesting that Clinton herself is not a serious V.P. candidate. I wasn't sold on her V.P. candidacy when she left the race, but given that so many high-powered Democrats once thought to be on Obama's list have taken themselves off in recent weeks, including Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, she is one of the few remaining Democrats with star power. And if Obama is looking for a wan Clinton surrogate like Bayh to bring in Clinton voters, why not look at Clinton herself?

I know there are a lot of answers to that question, some of them excellent, and I've never been convinced Clinton was a perfect choice. But as the list dwindles down to a lackluster few, I have found myself hoping Obama takes her more seriously. I can't imagine another V.P. choice on the list commonly mentioned that would genuinely energize voters and create excitement. (It could also energize conservative voters -- one reason it might not occur.) I also worry that the seeming lack of respect evident in the Nagourney piece -- she wasn't asked to submit any documentation, and told associates she doesn't think she is being seriously considered -- could still hurt Obama. I know it's fun and fashionable on the left to deride still-skeptical Clinton supporters as post-menopausal PUMAs, but Obama can't afford to write off too many Democratic subgroups.

If an Obama-Clinton ticket is not to be, I think I'd prefer Sen. Joe Biden to Kaine, Bayh or even Kathleen Sebelius, another appealing red-state moderate with no foreign policy credentials or national profile. Biden grew on me over the course of the Democratic campaign, with his foreign policy knowledge and his funny, self-deprecating efforts to erase his reputation for talking too much. In a year with such great Democratic presidential candidates, I find the shortlist of vice-presidential picks a letdown.
-- Joan Walsh

[Chance]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 5:10pm

I'm telling you, if you want a non-offensive, white governor without a ton of experience, Kulongoski is the way to go.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/29/08 at 5:17pm

obama/kulongoski? seriously?