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Vice President Kaine?

Gov. Tim Kaine would be a powerful running mate for Barack Obama

Date published: 7/24/2008

IT'S PREMATURE to say that the Mother of Presidents is expecting again. Yet some prognosticators in the know already are betting that Virginia's own Tim Kaine will be the top prospect to join Barack Obama's ticket. The Virginia governor the other day claimed the No. 1 spot on The Wash-ington Post's short list of Democratic veep possibilities.

Technically the Minnesota-born Mr. Kaine would not qualify as the ninth president from Virginia, should he make it all the way to the White House one day. But perhaps the Old Dominion can't afford to be picky. After all, it has been a good while since a Virginian of any description has come this close to a major-party national nomination. How long? The last Cavalier to call the White House home, Woodrow Wilson, left office in 1921.

Of course, the veep speculation is nothing more than an informed guess. And it's true that Mr. Kaine lacks the foreign-policy and military expertise Mr. Obama may be seeking. But there are a number of pluses in the guv's column. For starters, he was one of the first prominent supporters of Mr. Obama, back when the Illinois senator was a real long shot.

Second, Mr. Kaine shares Mr. Obama's vision of a post-partisan future that focuses on fixing problems and inspiring citizens, rather than playing cutthroat ideological politics. Third, his experience as governor complements Mr. Obama's Washington service. Fourth, Mr. Kaine probably would sew up a Democratic victory in Virginia for the first time since 1964--adding 13 electoral votes to Mr. Obama's column and subtracting that many from Sen. John McCain's.

Should Mr. Obama opt for foreign-policy experience, there's always Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. But Mr. Biden is a Washington establishment figure, not really in sync with Mr. Obama's turn-the-page campaign.

Add it all up, and it's no wonder Mr. Kaine rates so highly in the veep sweepstakes. Maybe the road from Richmond to Washington isn't as long as we thought.



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Date published: 7/24/2008


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democrats are always the FIRST TO SURRENDER (posted by imready , July 26, 2008 10:53 pm)   
democrats never stand up for America. All democrats do is talk and talk and talk. About change. democrats are a sickness and a cancer on America.

Sam Nunn (posted by raymaelynn57 , July 25, 2008 2:55 pm)   
Bet your boots boys and girls. That will be his running mate. It will be a tough ticket to beat.

Obama has the most liberal voting record in Congress (posted by imready , July 24, 2008 8:48 pm)   
And our beloved opinon editor says Obama does not play ideological politics. To compound this ignorance of political reality he then quotes Obama's three years in Washington not getting anything significant done as service. Not to mention that Obama has spent half that time running for President. Akers, Obama has not experience. For you to have an opinion worth respecting you need to get some truth in there somewhere.

An Obama/Kaine ticket... (posted by bhaas , July 24, 2008 9:06 am)   
would represent the least "experience" one could think of for the democrats.

Powerful Running Mate ??? !!! (posted by wolfman45 , July 24, 2008 7:58 am)   
I'm sorry, but Kaine as a "powerful running mate" would be as much of a joke as Gilmore currently running against Warner for the upcoming Senate seat !

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