Clinton, Biden, Bayh—Oh My

With Barack Obama poised to choose his running mate by Saturday, the buzz in Washington political circles has settled on Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. I’m not sure why this is so, but Biden does seem to have a spring in his step, according to the media types trailing him out. A two-time presidential candidate himself, Biden is supposedly one of three finalists. They are not all wearing the pressure equally.

The three under consideration, says Washington’s dreaded (and often wrong) Conventional Wisdom are Biden, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Virginia governor Tim Kaine. Bayh seems a bit nervous: Yesterday, one of his son's lacrosse equipment bags was hanging halfway out of Bayh's car, and was dragged about a block. Bayh, riding in the passenger's seat, opened the car door to free the bag—and then drove off without it. It was returned to him by the journalists following him. (Good thing it was helmets and pads in there instead of national security plans.) If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that Bayh is Loose Cannon’s own choice, not that Barack has deigned to consult me, and I’m sticking with him. By the way, here is an interesting link: It's a May 2 interview of Evan Bayh done by Linda Douglass of National Journal. Bayh, then still a Hillary Clinton supporter, touts his candidate, while Douglass probes him about Obama's controversial pastor and other issues. Today, Douglass, who left the news business soon thereafter, works on the Obama campaign as a senior communications official—while Bayh is under consideration as his running mate. "Strange bedfellows" is the adage that comes to mind.

For his part, Governor Kaine, according to the crack political team at MSNBC, is acting as though he considers himself lucky to be on the list at all. I agree with that assessment; in fact, I have trouble believing Kaine really is being considered. For my money, he makes less sense than another Virginian, Vietnam combat veteran and freshman Senator Jim Webb, and only marginally more sense than former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who is running for Senate this year. But it's difficult to discern the nominee's thinking when it comes to veep picks, especially when the staff is so intent on keeping a secret, and not offending huge swaths of supporters. Hillary Clinton’s, for instance. The Clintonistas certainly believe their heroine is a better fit as an Obama running mate than the three men supposedly under consideration—and is vastly more qualified than the other woman supposedly being vetted, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.