WASHINGTON: The countdown has started for the long-awaited US Democratic vice presidential candidate to be named, after the party’s White House hopeful Barack Obama announced Thursday that he had decided on his running mate but is not yet ready to reveal who it is.
Also Thursday — a question about the number of Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain’s houses triggered an unusually ferocious back-and-forth from political war rooms late this week. The flap began when McCain was unable to tell a reporter how many properties he or his wife owns.
Obama said yesterday the running mate he has chosen — but has not yet announced — had to meet three standards to join the Democratic ticket: Prepared to be president, able to help him govern and willing to challenge his thinking. He is expected to announce the name today, two days before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Three Democrats top the speculated list of Obama’s VP options: Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Indiana Sen. Even Bayh and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Sen. Biden, one of the earliest dropouts from the Democratic primary in 2008, attracted most spotlight recently, especially after he was invited as chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee to visit Georgia to assess the situation there last week, showing his strong stock in foreign and defense affairs — areas Obama has been always criticized for not having enough experience. Sen. Bayh shares a lot of similarities with Obama: young, charming, eloquent and centrist, among others. During his two terms as Indiana governor, he showed recommendable records in financial and economic management, which most American voters are yearning for amid economic slowdown. However, lack of experience in Washington and popularity nationwide; on the other hand, make the 52-year-old a risky choice for Obama. White Gov. Kaine publicly announced that he did not consider himself a choice for the Democratic dream ticket; he has risen to the short list of the potential VP candidates. As the first governor who endorsed Obama outside Illinois, the 50-year-old Harvard Law School graduate is eyed by voters as a charming representative of a new generation of Democrats, just like Obama himself.
But Kaine has the same shortcoming as Bayh — and even Obama — in lacking experience in foreign and defense affairs as well as a solid foundation at the Capitol Hill.
Obama’s former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who carried 18 million votes in the primary season, was still considered the unquestionable VP candidate by many until her hope to share the ticket was diminished due to the belligerent presence of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who has had a visibly angry relationship with the Obama campaign. Still, a recent CBS/New York Times poll stated that 28 percent of convention delegates prefer Clinton as Obama’s vice president, which is higher than any of the other possible VP contenders.
Sen. McCain’s verbal gaffe, meanwhile, continues to make headlines. It was a simple question: “How many homes do you own?” The conventional wisdom would indicate that most Americans know the answer to that question. An unscientific newsroom poll here at Arab News backed that conventional wisdom: 100 percent of those polled could answer the question without hesitation.
But the answer wasn’t simple for McCain. Newsweek magazine recently estimated that McCain and his wife, who comes from a wealthy family, own at least seven properties.
The McCain campaign said the couple own at least four homes in three states. But McCain’s inability to recall the number of homes he owns jeopardized his campaign’s carefully constructed strategy to frame Obama as an out-of-touch elitist.
For the Democratic candidate suffering from a barrage of attacks on his “celebrity,” McCain’s inability to recall the scope of his family holdings was a timely break. The Obama team pounced, depicting McCain as out of touch with economic reality.
By mid-morning, reporters had received a video log featuring Cindy McCain’s childhood estate in Phoenix, an Architectural Digest spread on another property the McCains had owned previously, and tax records and photos detailing seven houses and condominiums — in Coronado and La Jolla, Calif.; Phoenix and Sedona, Ariz.; and Arlington. By 11 a.m., the Obama campaign had produced a television advertisement titled “Seven” and was answering the question McCain could not.
TV news anchors, always looking for catchy catch-phrases, uttered the line “John McCain’s personal housing crisis” endlessly and led their newscasts with: Once he gets through this hiccup, McCain is expected to announce the name of his running mate during a rally on Aug. 29. The Republican National Convention begins Sept. 1 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
