Veep: Change vs. Experience

18 July 2008 |permalink | email article

Obama appears closer to narrowing his list of vice presidential candidates.

This week he campaigned in Indiana with Sen. Evan Bayh and former Sen. Sam Nunn, each with strong national security credentials.

A third possibility, Sen. Jack Reed, a West Point graduate, will soon travel with Obama to Europe and the Middle East. All three fit the experience column.

But the Washington Post reported Obama is also considering others more in his personal political mold, fellow outsiders who would press his message of bringing change to Washington.

Bill Clinton chose a fellow Southerner to “amplify his message instead of broadening it,” veteran consultant Joe Trippi said.

John Kennedy opted for a rival and his senior, consummate Senate insider Lyndon Johnson, a purely strategic choice to expand the geographic, ideological and generational reach of the ticket.

In the change column the governors of two traditionally Republican states, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Timothy Kaine of Virginia, endorsed Obama early. Both are Irish Catholics, a demographic group with which Obama proved weak in the primaries.

Matt Bennett, a former Clinton administration official, told the Post, “This cycle is, in many respects, looking a lot like 1992 – a young and enormously charismatic change candidate running against an older Republican who promises more of the same…”

My hunch: Obama may gravitate more toward a “change” Sebelius or a Kaine, with Sen. Joseph Biden the “experience” alternative.

Quotes of the Day

** “[Obama] said he wanted me to campaign with him and I said I was eager to do so. So I just told him that whatever he wanted to do I was ready. So I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do whenever I can do it.” – Former President Bill Clinton to ABC News yesterday in Harlem.

** “I’ve decided to impose a personal term limit of two terms as vice president.” – Al Gore on Good Morning America today, saying he sees his role as one that is “focused on changing public opinion” on climate change. [Gore is on Meet the Press this Sunday.]

122