Obama/Kaine '08?

One of the candidates Obama may be actively considering as his running mate is Virginia governor Tim Kaine, a conservative Democrat.

His thumbnail bio has some really good elements:

Kaine was born in St. Paul, Minnesota to Mary Kathleen Burns and Albert A. Kaine, an engineer and small business owner. Kaine grew up in the Kansas City area and graduated from Rockhurst High School there. Kaine graduated from the University of Missouri–Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1979. He attended Harvard Law School, taking a year-long break during law school to work with the Jesuit order as a Catholic missionary in Honduras. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1983, and was admitted to the Virginia Bar.

Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, specializing in representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability. He was recognized by local, state and national organizations for his fair housing advocacy. He also taught legal ethics for six years at the University of Richmond Law School.

Over ten years into his legal career, in 1994, he was elected to the city council of the independent city of Richmond from the portion of the city in which he resided under Richmond's system of nine wards. He would later be elected mayor of Richmond by the city council (which until 2004 chose the mayor from among its membership). He spent a total of seven years on the city council, including his time as mayor. The City of Richmond had been long notorious for having one of the highest murder rates in the United States. The trend had worsened greatly in the 1980s, and had continued into the 1990s. As mayor, Kaine was credited with helping to create and implement the gun law known as Project Exile. The controversial program was the predecessor of the statewide Virginia Exile program.

Kaine served as Lieutenant Governor from 2002-2006, when he became Governor. He was one of the first politicians outside of Illinois to endorse Obama, in January, 2007. From a strategic view, the fact that Kaine is not a Washington politician complements the Obama campaign's theme of bringing fresh ideas to the White House. Kaine is popular in Virginia and his presence on the ticket would mean McCain would have to fight hard to win there.

After the Virginia Tech massacre, Kaine proposed background checks for purchases at gun shows and advocated for the inclusion of people who have been adjudged mentally ill in the background check database.

Kaine, however, is also anti-abortion. He is a member of Democrats for Life of America, which only endorses candidates in favor of increased legal restrictions on abortion, making it unlikely to endorse Obama. Kaine has said:

"A lot of Democrats, if you try to get them to say, 'I want there to be fewer abortions,' their mouths just won't move," said Kaine. "The fact is, that is what most Americans want."

Kaine actively supports banning "partial-birth abortion", a term he uses. Recently, the Fourth Circuit struck down as unconstitutional a Virginia law which would have essentially banned all second-trimester abortions. That law was passed before Kaine became governor, and as far as I can tell, he made no comment on the ruling. However, while he was running for governor, he said:

"Because of my long-standing opposition to partial-birth abortion, in 2002, I proposed an amendment that would have made this ban constitutional. Unfortunately, partisan politics got in the way, and the amendment was rejected by the General Assembly."

Picking Kaine would infuriate pro-choice Democrats and further alienate Democratic women from Obama.

On the other hand, in 2007 Kaine cut all funding for abstinence-only sex education after it was shown to be ineffective. In 2008, Kaine approved a plan to vaccinate all sixth-grade girls against HPV, with the caveat that parents could opt out.

While running for governor, Kaine advised Democrats to stop criticizing the religious right:

In addition to actively talking about their own faith, Kaine says, Democrats need to temper their comments about other peoples' faith.

"The second thing that Democrats have to do better on is not attacking the 'religious right,'" he said. "I think that has been a standard bogeyman that Democrats have often used in campaigns, including campaigns in Virginia. If somebody advances an idea or position that's wrong, then attack them for having a bad idea. But they are not wrong because they are religious.

"When Democrats kind of cavalierly attack the religious right or go after Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, our candidates have sent the signal to a lot of religious people, 'Well, I guess they are not interested in me.' And I think this includes a lot of people who would fit very naturally within the Democratic Party."

While having a theoretical objection to the death penalty as part of his pro-life beliefs, Kaine has signed four death warrants and does not support any additional restrictions on capital punishment, saying it is the law of the land.

It's my personal opinion that Obama should be inclined to pick a white man rather than a woman or Hispanic, and a governor rather than a Senator, because electing two people with no executive branch experience may be too much for some voters. (I think a similar argument is true for McCain.) Obama in recent days has said he's looking for a "working" Vice President:

“I think the most important thing, from my perspective, is somebody who can help me govern,” Obama said. “I want somebody who I’m compatible with, who I can work with, who has a shared vision, who certainly complements me, in the sense that they provide a knowledge base or an area of expertise that can be useful. Because we’re going to have a lot of problems and a lot of work to do."

“I’m not interested in a vice president who I just send off to go to funerals,” he continued. “I want somebody who’s going to be able to roll up their sleeves and really do some work.”

Part of the political calculation I think Obama is making here is that an experienced governor (a) helps offset the sense that he himself lacks sufficient seasoning to run the government and (b) allays the very real fear among some people that Obama will be assassinated and someone capable will be required to take over in the emergency.

So, overall, Kaine's anti-choice policies are extremely troubling, but I see why he'd be on Obama's short list. If he's the V.P. pick, there would be an enormous uproar about how Obama is abandoning abortion rights. It would be interesting to see how they'd handle that.

Comments

[zenpundit]

"If he's the V.P. pick, there would be an enormous uproar about how Obama is abandoning abortion rights. It would be interesting to see how they'd handle that"

Obama's campaign should point to Obama's own record on abortion rights. If Kaine is intolerable to the Democratic Party as Veep than so will most conservative or moderate Democrats be.

IMHO Obama & McCain will be close to dead even come election day for many reasons but at root because the country is itself, badly divided along partisan lines. Swing voters have weak ties to either side and are easily alienated by harsh gestures that each party's activist base tend to eat up.

Each candidate needs to give very careful consideration to the VP slot, the atmospherics of the convention and the tone of the issues they will "own" as candidates after labor day. It is easier for either of them to throw aawy their own chance to be president with a single, high profile, really stupid move, than to decisively beat the other through consistent good performance as a campaigner.