April 26, 2004
WELCOME BACK, SENATOR QUAYLE:
Wanted: Veep Who Can Carry Iowa and Ohio (Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing and Jessica Shyu, 4/26/04, CBS News)
As John Kerry travels the country looking for votes and donations, his team of VP vetters, led by Jim Johnson, is looking for the perfect running mate. And while the vetting process has been very quiet, this week's flavors include politicians who can carry Ohio and Iowa. Kerry traveled to Iowa on Sunday, fueling "speculation of a Kerry-Vilsack ticket," reports the Des Moines Register. Sen. Tom Harkin, who endorsed Howard Dean in the primaries but stood at Kerry's side on Sunday, alluded to former President Franklin Roosevelt choice of Iowan Henry Wallace and said of Roosevelt, "When he was looking for a vice president, he came to Iowa. My friends, it's the same today." Vilsack himself was more reserved, saying only that "It is up to us to get this good man elected."Moving east from Iowa, Ohio is looming large in the minds of many VP prognosticators. In Roll Call, Stuart Rothenberg says that Democrats must win in Ohio and that neighboring Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana may be the man to help them do so. Passing over home-state pols, Rothenberg also skips Dick Gephardt and John Edwards, settling on Bayh as "a former two-term governor and true moderate Democrat who has been successful among voters not unlike the kind found in south and central Ohio."
Hard to know which is sillier, a guy who you'd compare to Henry Wallace or one whose Senate seat they'd then lose to the GOP. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 26, 2004 1:19 PM
I am not familar with Iowa politics but I assume that picking a democratic governor would help Kerry. However, why would picking someone from Indiana help in Ohio?
Posted by: Bob at April 26, 2004 2:04 PMThe scary thing is that Sen. Harkin doesn't get the absurdity of lauding Henry Wallace, a guy Dem insiders forced FDR to dump in '44 (and thankfully so given FDR's death five months after the election) because Wallace was a security threat.
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at April 26, 2004 2:10 PMHenry Wallace is probably the closest we got to having a genuine socialist in high office. If Harkin let that comment go he might not know who Henry Wallace is, which is a scary thing in itself.
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at April 26, 2004 2:28 PMWell, you know Kucinich is still out there, and he's from Ohio...
Posted by: John at April 26, 2004 2:37 PMDennis Kucinich may be from Ohio, but I can tell you from direct observation that there are more people here with West Nile virus than there are with Kucinich Fever.
Posted by: Mike Morley at April 26, 2004 2:55 PMI should also add that most of us would prefer contracting West Nile to finding ourselves infused with enthusiasm for Dennis Kucinich!
Posted by: Mike Morley at April 26, 2004 2:57 PMI think Kucinich would be perfect.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at April 26, 2004 3:03 PMKucinich is definitely the MAN!
Posted by: h-man at April 26, 2004 3:12 PMBayh won't even help Kerry take Indiana (let alone Ohio) and Bayh is a canny enough politician to know that he'd be ending his career by jumping on to Kerry's ticket.
Posted by: Random Lawyer at April 26, 2004 3:22 PMA pair of white male Senators-for-Life, brought to you by the party that wants to impose diversity on everyone but themselves.
There's no way anyone named "Vilsack" will ever be elected either president or vice-president.
Posted by: Timothy at April 26, 2004 5:10 PMKerry-Vilsack - sounds too much like a recent French foreign minister.
Yeah! That's the ticket for the French-looking candidate!
Posted by: Oswald Booth Czolgosz at April 26, 2004 8:36 PM