Overnighting A Veep Rumor

By Kleinheider Posted on July 28, 2008 at 12:06 pm

Marc Ambinder bandies about a Tennessee name in the national chatter:

A dark horse, to be sure, but some McCain advisers are asking others what they’d think about Frederick Smith, the chief executive officer of Federal Express. Mr. Smith is 64, an articulate spokesperson for Republican economic principles, knowledgable about globalization and economic flattening, and a long-time friend of McCain’s, to boot. He was also a Marine and served in Vietnam, earning a chest full of medals. And while he’s a reliable support of GOP causes, he has many Democratic friends….

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Tags: Fred Smith, John McCain, runningmate, Veep  

I Don’t Appreciate Your Ruse, Sir

By Kleinheider Posted on July 22, 2008 at 6:50 am

Sharon Cobb is not buying that John McCain will be choosing his runningmate this week. Her reasoning is simple:

To wit, yesterday afternoon, someone high up in the McCain campaign leaked to Robert Novak that McCain would make his choice for VEEP known this week.

Will that happen? No.

The ONLY reason to do it this week is to take the focus off of Obama’s foreign affairs victories, because McCain thought that was Obama’s weakest issue.

That said, there is no advantage other than the above, and that’s not enough.

McCain has the advantage going into the Veepstakes, because his convention is a week after Obama’s, and McCain will have the advantage of knowing who the Democratic VEEP is, therefore knowing whether to put a woman on the ticket instead of Romney.

CONCURRING OPINIONS:
Daniel Larison
Real Clear Politics
FiveThirtyEight
LA Times
Wall Street Journal

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Tags: Bobby Jindal, John McCain, Mitt Romney, press manipulation, runningmate, Veep, Veepstakes  

Office Space

By Kleinheider Posted on May 26, 2008 at 10:29 am

Al Giordano reports that John Edwards has requested the use of his former North Carolina campaign space back from the small business he donated to and discusses whether that could mean that Edwards is Barack Obama’s choice for Vice President.

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Tags: Barack Obama, John Edwards, runningmate, ticket, Veep, Vice-President  

Lamar Openly Leaks McCain Veep Search Team Leader

By Kleinheider Posted on May 23, 2008 at 6:31 pm

Warning: If you don’t want the name of the guy running your Veep search team leaked, you might not want to embarrass a guy behind the scene by making calls to scuttle the man’s run for Minority Whip:

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) told The Hill that Arthur Culvahouse, who was Reagan’s White House counsel from March 1987 to January 1989, will be helping McCain vet candidates and develop a list.

Alexander and Culvahouse have known each other for decades and both have connections to former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.).

“It’s Arthur B. Culvahouse, that’s who’s heading the search,” Alexander said.

Culvahouse refused to comment to The Hill, as did the McCain campaign.

“John McCain is heading his search committee, and other than that we don’t talk about it,” said Charlie Black, a top McCain adviser.

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Tags: Arthur Culvahouse, Charlie Black, John McCain, Lamar Alexander, runningmate, Veep Search, Vice-President  

The Tangled Webb Of Vice-Presidential Politics

By Kleinheider Posted on May 8, 2008 at 7:49 am

With his nomination all but certain, Sharon Cobb has taken to pondering who might be the best Vice-Presidential choice for Illinois Senator:

What about Joe Biden, who has more foreign affairs experience than any of the original people running for President with the exception of Chris Dodd? Would an older, established white man with a plethora of experience help Barack more than Hillary or John? Biden or Dodd might make a good balance, though I’m not sure either would benefit Barack in the states where he needs help. On the other hand, both men have been fully vetted as well.

Bill Richardson, anyone? Aside from his experience in negotiating with North Korea and other troubled spots, he could be most helpful in picking up the Hispanic vote, a group where Obama is relatively weak. Hillary is strong with Hispanics, so she would help there as well.

What do you think? Who do you think should be Barack’s running mate?

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Tags: Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, Jim Webb for Veep, Joe Biden, making the white folk comfortable, runningmate