Late Friday afternoon, the day the Obama campaign announced their vice president candidate, Bill Richardson sent out an email to supporters to his presidential run.
It was clear at that point, Richardson was not going to be the vice president candidate, even though he touts a long resume when it comes to foreign policy. It was as if Richardson was telling supporters even though he won’t be vice president, to not forget about him.
Here is the email…
I know it’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me. But before I head off to the Democratic National Convention, I wanted to share with you some of the exciting things that have been going on.
This weekend I’m flying to Denver with Dave Contarino, Amanda Cooper and several of my senior staff. And on August 28, I’ll join with hundreds of Democratic delegates in nominating Barack Obama as our next president.
The whole world will be watching as Democrats come together in one incredible, inspirational moment for our Party and our nation. I’m sure you’ll be watching, too.
Then on Wednesday, Barack Obama has asked me deliver a special address on foreign policy and diplomacy. I hope you’ll tune in to hear it.
Over the next week, I’ll be attending a variety of meetings and events in Denver. I’ll share more details with you about those as we firm up my schedule.
In these weeks leading up to the Convention, I’ve been campaigning around over the country on behalf of Barack Obama. From Illinois to California, Florida to Puerto Rico, we’ve been raising money and rallying supporters.
In particular, we have been all over New Mexico, building a strong organization so Obama can win the state in November. Just the other morning, I visited three cities before lunch–then came back to Santa Fe for a midday rally.
Last weekend, I joined Senator Hillary Clinton to host an Obama rally in Espanola. Now, Espanola is a town of only about 10,000–and over 1,000 people came out to see us!
Senator Clinton spoke passionately about the need for every Democrat to unite behind Obama, and urged those who worked so hard on her campaign to work just as hard to make him our next president.
Afterward, I held two very successful fundraisers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque to help Senator Clinton retire her campaign debt. It was a great day for the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party is truly coming together. And the Convention will complete the healing for our Party–and set the stage for taking back the White House in November.
Now I’ve got just a few things to take care of before I leave. But I promise I’ll keep you posted on everything going on in Denver.
I’ll write again once we’ve checked into the hotel.
I am happy with Joe Biden being picked as Obama’s vice president. Biden wasn’t my first choice, but was close to the top and a much better choice than Bayh or Kaine would have been.
I will be working on a couple posts about Biden in the next few days. In the meantime, here is a video of Biden speaking at a campaign event in Marshalltown.
Here are the my posts on Biden leading up to the Iowa caucuses…
The Obama campaign will be sending out the text announcing their vice president pick on Saturday morning.
All signs looking like Biden. Noam Scheiber makes a great point…
You can let the suspense build and build if you’ve got a Hillary or a Gore socked away somewhere. Possibly a Biden or a Webb (or some unorthodox pick like a general or a Republican). But you’d better not come with Jack Reed or Evan Bayh after toying with people for over a week.
Barack Obama is supposed to announce his VP candidate this evening or tomorrow morning by text message to supporters. There will be an event in Springfield, Illinois tomorrow afternoon with Obama and the Vice President candidate.
I am predicting that the choice will be Joe Biden. Biden is known to talk a lot and, except for a comment midweek that he’s not the guy, he has been pretty quiet the past couple weeks. Biden is coming off a trip to Georgia where he talked to leaders in the region about the conflict with Russia. Biden best quality in my opinion is that he isn’t afraid to throw elbows and go on the attack.
Bayh and Kaine’s names have been put out there before Obama made campaign stops in their respective states and the buzz wasn’t always positive. I think that was basically a test run and the campaign has decided against those two. Another reason that going against Kaine is that Obama just spent two days campaigning in Virginia, a key battleground state, so it wouldn’t make sense to announce your naming the Governor of Virginia VP at an event in another state.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary Clinton gets the nod. This diary at Open Left makes the case that Obama will name Hillary Clinton that makes a lot of sense.
If, in June, Clinton told you she should be your VP and you were seriously considering it, what would you do? You would probably tell her that the only way it could happen is if you wholeheartedly endorse me, make it clear you have gotten over the joint ticket idea, have those under your influence (such as the “Vote Both” folks) drop all of their efforts on HRC’s behalf. You’d say, I can’t look weak by picking you, like I was forced by circumstance. It must look like a choice I made that I didn’t have to make but I did because I’m such a big person and I care about the country and I care about victory.
There are three candidates that I would most like to see be named vice president. I would love for Obama to name Kathleen Sebelius, who was campaigning in Iowa yesterday, is still a choice, but there hasn’t been much buzz about her lately. And Tom Harkin is pushing for Chris Dodd, which I think would be a great choice. Finally, I have been a little surprised that Bill Richardson hasn’t been mentioned as much. I think he would bring a lot to the table.
Then it could be a complete dark horse candidate like Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Mark Warner, or Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (one of the battleground states Obama is visiting after the announcement is Montana).
Now it’s just time to sit back with my cell phone in hand and wait for the announcement.
Barack Obama was in Indiana overnight and has a speech on energy policy today.
Officially, Barack Obama will deliver an energy-policy speech Wednesday to citizens in Elkhart, Ind. But the focus of the political chattering class will be on the man sitting shotgun at the event: Evan Bayh, the Indiana senator thought to be on the likely Democratic presidential nominee’s short list of vice-presidential candidates
Of all the candidates that have been mentioned as possible vice president candidates, Bayh is probably the least appealing. He voted for the war and was a past president of the DLC. I admit that Bayh would be a safe pick. He probably puts Indiana in play and brings some foreign policy experience.
One of the names that is getting thrown out there as possible vice president nominees is Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. I am not sold on Kaine. He would probably push Virginia into the blue column, but Kaine is probably the 3 choice of possible VP candidates in his own state behind Mark Warner and Jim Webb.
One of the best local blogospheres in the country - Virginia’s - emerged in 2005 out of the draft Clark campaign. Lowell Feld started the site Raising Kaine to support Tim Kaine for Governor, since Kaine was seen as a successor to Mark Warner, a Democrat who had governed effectively and progressively in the state. Kaine eventually won the race, and then the Virginia netroots and Feld went on to help Jim Webb defeat George Allen. This group has been part of turning that entire state blue, and they are quite tolerant of conservative Democrats.
So it’s worth noting that the blog refers to itself as RK at this point, and has firmly turned against Kaine.
Three years into the Kaine Administration, Virginia Progressives stand aghast at what it has become. From his repeal of the estate tax to his abandoned plan for universal Pre-K, to his opposition to embryonic stem cells, from his failed transportation plans to cozy relationship to Dominion Power and his reprehensible support of the Wise Coal Plant, the Kaine administration has fulfilled our every early fear and never failed to disappoint progressive Virginia.
Not only has Kaine caved to the business right by promoting coal against the opposition of environmentalists and cutting taxes on the superwealthy, but the state is paralyzed by hyper-partisanship.
Tim Kaine spoke at the Texas Democratic Convention, which was covered by a blogger from the Burnt Orange Report…
Remember — I started watching this video not liking Kaine. I already didn’t like him because he (and his staff) were surprisingly and unnecessarily pushy backstage at the TDP convention (where I was volunteering). After reading about his policies, I liked him even less. Suffice to say, I’m really, really unexcited about any prospects of him as Vice President.
But if the only measuring stick is, “how good of a stump candidate for Vice President” would Kaine be, I’d have to say excellent. He can speak in Spanish, delivers red-meat to the base without becoming too partisan or overshadowing Obama, and can honestly tell a real-life story of flipping conservative states red-to-blue.
He’s one of the worst choices for anyone who cares about policy, but is a damn good choice for anyone who only cares about politics.
Obama could do far worse than Tim Kaine, but there is a lot left to be desired policy wise.
One of my top choices for Obama’s vice president is General Wesley Clark. Clark was against the war, brings foreign policy credentials, is a Washington outsider, was a Clinton supporter, and is strong on progressive issues.
The political argument for Clark is simple. He is a great surrogate for Democrats, with experience in 2004 and 2006 on the campaign trail, and a genuine national base of supporters. In terms of governance, which is what Obama says is the most important criteria for his VP pick, Clark can help Obama deal with the mess that the Bush administration left behind. As commander of NATO in the late 1990s, Clark won a war, so he is more likely than any progressive out there to be able to wrangle solutions from a military establishment that has been decimated by Bush’s cronyism and incompetence. That is really important moving forward, since rebuilding our national security posture is a critical challenge over the next eight years
Clark also emphasizes Obama’s strengths. He is popular among grassroots progressives, he was against the war in Iraq from the get-go, and he is an outsider to politics.
Paul Rosenberg at Open Left takes a look at a possible Obama/Edwards ticket and says they would blow out McCain.
It looks like Edwards gives Obama a bump in the upper midwest states and in the southeast.
Electoral College: Obama 309, McCain 145, Toss-up 84 National popular vote: Obama 49.9%-42.2% McCain
I’d be happy, really happy, if Obama chose Edwards as VP. However, I think the reason Edwards gives Obama the biggest bump of all possible VP candidates is because Edwards has the highest name recognition of all of them not named Clinton.
In a briefing with reporters here in Washington, Obama manager David Plouffe offered the campaign’s first public comments on what criteria Obama would use to choose his vice presidential ticket-mate.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Plouffe said that Obama would choose someone “qualified to be president and someone who’ll be a partner in governing.”
“We certainly don’t want to pick someone who will hurt,” he said.
He then referred to President Bush’s choice of Dick Cheney as any example of a pick that didn’t help Bush politically but didn’t hurt him either.
And he noted that the pick of Al Gore didn’t help Bill Clinton win Tennessee in 1992; without Gore, Clinton would have won anyway.
Richardson and Webb have the best geographic arguments to be VP, so you’d think this might help the chances of Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius.
Marc Ambinder gives some information on how Obama and McCain are conducting their vice presidential searches…
(1) Timing: the McCain campaign is looking at an early August date to reveal the choice; the Obama campaign is looking at early or mid-August; both campaigns are aware that the Olympics begins on August 8.
(2) Vetting – having spoken with aides and advisers to folks I’m guessing will be on the short lists, neither candidate seems to be at the point where they’ve begun to formally vet a smaller selection of potential nominees. In general, only a handful of VP hopefuls on both sides are asked to submit to interviews with lawyers, to relinquish their medical records and tax returns, to alert the vetting teams to any potential scandal lurking in their pasts. It does not seem as if the major short list suspects have yet been contacted by the search teams.
(3) Winnowing – My best guess is that both candidates are in the stage where they’re reviewing open source political and personal data for any number of potential candidates and are in the process of figuring out whom they want their vice presidential search teams to approach.
