Ex-Governor's Role Hints That Kaine Isn't VP Choice
By Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Democratic Party leaders announced yesterday that former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner will deliver the keynote address at their national convention in Denver this month, positioning him prominently in a week-long lineup that seeks to pay homage to the party of the past while ushering in a new generation of leaders under Barack Obama.
The choice of Warner appeared to dim chances that the state's current governor, Timothy M. Kaine, would be selected as the Democrats' vice presidential nominee. If Kaine were chosen as Obama's running mate, two Virginians would have back-to-back prime-time speaking slots, a scenario that party officials regard as unlikely.
The convention, which will begin Aug. 25, will be studded with old and new faces. Monday will feature a tribute to the Kennedys. On Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) will speak and Warner will deliver his keynote address. Wednesday's program will be devoted to military issues and national security, and it will feature Obama's pick for vice president; two front-running vice presidential candidates, Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) and Evan Bayh (Ind.), have speaking slots that day. Former president Bill Clinton will also appear on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Obama will accept the nomination before about 80,000 people jammed into Invesco Field at Mile High.
Kaine is slated to speak Tuesday, a day devoted to the economy and the environment. Democratic consultant Jenny Backus, a convention organizer, said most of the presumed vice presidential finalists have been booked for speaking slots other than the running mate's. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, for instance, is on the Tuesday program.
A source close to Kaine said this past Tuesday night -- before yesterday morning's announcement about Warner -- that the governor believed he would "get the silver medal" in the vice presidential sweepstakes. Obama's decision to make security the theme on the night his running mate speaks is regarded by party observers as a subtle hint that Kaine and other governors without foreign policy credentials might be less likely choices.
Kaine had become the subject of intense speculation during the past two weeks, after reports that he provided documents to Obama's campaign and told friends that the conversations about the No. 2 job were "serious."
He also quickly became the focus of sharp Republican attacks. On the day the reports appeared, one GOP source said that an Obama-Kaine ticket would be the "least experienced ticket in the history of the world."
Karl Rove, the former top political aide to President Bush, said on "Face the Nation" this week that Kaine has been "able but undistinguished" and disparaged his qualifications, saying he had only been mayor of the nation's 105th-largest city.
"So if he were to pick Governor Kaine," Rove said, referring to Obama, "it would be an intensely political choice where he said, 'You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States? What I'm concerned about is, can he bring me the electoral votes of the state of Virginia?' "
Although an earlier generation of Democrats will receive recognition at the gathering, convention aides made it clear that the party's page will be turning in Denver.
"This is a new Democratic Party. Yes, the Clinton voices are very important. So are people left over from the Kerry campaign and even John Edwards's supporters. But we're going to show off a new generation of leaders," said a Democratic official close to the organizing.
With Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) battling a brain tumor, Monday night's tribute could be an emotional high point, especially if the senator is well enough to speak. But the emphasis will be a comparison of Kennedy's ability to reach out to Republicans to Obama's focus on "post-partisan" politics.
The evening will also spotlight Michelle Obama, who will flesh out her husband's biography. She will be preceded by one of her husband's most trusted surrogates, freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), and introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson.
Hillary Clinton will get a prime speaking slot Tuesday and is expected to speak of her historic bid to become the first female nominee of a major party, as well as the nation's economic challenges. She will share the stage with Warner, who is running for the Senate; Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer; and Sebelius, all of whom could be new faces for voters who last tuned in to Democratic politics in 2004. Warner is expected to stress how he won support in Republican regions of rural Virginia by listening to the needs and struggles of ordinary voters.
Also speaking that night will be Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), an antiabortion Democrat whose father was denied a speaking slot at Bill Clinton's nominating convention in 1992 because of his opposition to abortion. Casey, who backed Obama over Hillary Clinton in his state's hard-fought primary, is not expected to speak about abortion, but Democrats conceded that his name alone speaks to the issue.
Wednesday's national security theme has stoked speculation that Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will be moving up to the prime-time spot to accept his party's vice presidential nomination. But Bayh also has a speaking spot that day.
One name not on Wednesday's program is former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, who denied speculation yesterday that he will endorse Obama at the convention.
"I am not attending either political convention. As I have said for some time, I know both candidates and I am studying their positions and statements. I have not decided who I will vote for," Powell said in an e-mail to The Washington Post.
Another foreign policy luminary not on Wednesday's program is former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who was among the eight Democrats who initially campaigned for this year's presidential nomination. Convention organizers said last night that the final slate of speakers is not complete and that Richardson is likely to make an appearance.
On Thursday, as the convention moves from the indoor Pepsi Center to Mile High, an open-air football stadium, Democrats will have to balance their desire to spotlight Obama's enthusiastic following with concern that images of a cheering throng will ratify Republican attacks on the candidate as a glitzy but untested celebrity.
"If spectacle is the story or dominant message to come out of the last night, Obama will not maximize the benefits to his campaign," said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen. "He doesn't need soaring rhetoric. He needs a message that focuses on how he will change America and why America cannot afford four more years of failed policies that have weakened our economy and made us less secure around the world."
One Obama aide said much of the program's emphasis will be an acknowledgment of his historical role as the first black major-party nominee, as he accepts that honor on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington. The stagecraft of that night is still under discussion, and two aides said yesterday that the convention and the campaign will strive to leave an impression of seriousness, not adulation.
The imperative for Obama is keeping expectations low, said Bob Shrum, a senior adviser to the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John F. Kerry. "To expect to get a big bounce is a mistake," Shrum said, noting that the senator from Illinois, unlike Gore or Kerry, enters the convention with a slim lead.
Salted throughout the program will be testimonials by little-known, young elected officials and some Republicans on how Obama's candidacy has changed them and how he has been changed by his campaign.
Four young House Democrats -- Iraq war veteran Patrick J. Murphy (Pa.); Artur Davis (Ala.); Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), a Clinton supporter; and Allyson Y. Schwartz (Pa.) -- will be hosts of a telecast for the Internet and high-definition television. And a new "Faith Caucus" will be meeting to try to organize religious voters, who have largely sided with Republicans for nearly three decades.
Staff writer Karen DeYoung and washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza contributed to this report.
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