The countdown has started for the long-guessed U.S. Democratic vice presidential candidate to show up after the party's White House hopeful Barack Obama announced Thursday that he had decided on his running mate.
"Yes," the Illinois Senator, for the first time, made a positive answer when asked whether he has made up his mind on VP selection during an interview with the USA Today.
But he stopped short of revealing more details or clues on the final name in the box.
"I won't comment on anything else until I introduce our running mate to the world," he said. "That's all you're going to get out of me."
Traditionally, vice president was considered as a position with little importance in the U.S. government. John Nance Garner, vice president for Franklin Roosevelt, went further to say that the job was not worth a bucket of warm spit.
Before the November elections, a VP candidate usually only had three moments: an announcement, a convention speech and a debate, as the way Democratic strategist Tad Devine put it in an interview with the Politico website.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) arrives for a campaign event in Martinsville, Virginia, Aug. 20, 2008. However, the VP candidates in 2008 have received more than ever attention since Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, are trying to make their respective choice an opportunity to win an upper hand in the neck-and-neck competition for the White House.
Both the 47-year-old African American Senator in his first term in the Congress and the 71-year-old six-term Senator who survived the Vietnam War have to make a calculated decision on their running mates to underscore who they are and compensate for who they are not.
Three Democrats top the speculated list of Obama's VP options: Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Indiana Senator Even Bayh and Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine.
Biden, who was one of the earliest dropouts from the Democratic primary in 2008, attracted most spotlight recently, especially after he was invited as chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to visit Georgia to assess the situation there last week, showing his strong stock in foreign and defense affairs, the areas Obama has been always criticized for not having enough experience in.
Moreover, growing up in a working-class family in Pennsylvania, Biden is expected to help Obama win over more blue collars in November.
However, his age, 65, and long-term immersion in the Capitol Hill potentially threaten Obama's motto to bring changes to Washington. Given his influence and capabilities, it is questionable whether Biden would concede to Obama and do the ritual job as a vice president.
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.
In addition, as an influential politician from a Republican-leaning state, he is expected to bring the Democratic Party more blue-color standing in the November elections.
However, lack of experience in Washington and popularity nationwide, on the other hand, make the 52-year-old a risky choice for Obama.
Although Kaine has 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.
Virginia, a traditional Republican stronghold, has shown in the primary season some possibilities to turn blue in the presidential elections, and Kaine's side-by-side presence with Obama will make it more likely to happen.
But he has the same shortcoming as Bayh and even Obama has in lacking experience in foreign and defense affairs as well as a solid foundation at the Capitol Hill.
The Democratic Party has not named a governor vice presidential candidate since 1924.
Above all, the top three options share a troublesome similarity in that they all supported the Iraq War at the first place, which ran against Obama's stance.
Obama's former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who carried 18 million votes in the primary season, was still considered the unquestionable VP candidate by some supporters but her hope to share the ticket dimmed due to the strong influence of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who has had a testy relationship with the Obama campaign.
Despite all principles followed by prior VP selection, Obama noted that he wanted a running mate who was "prepared to be president" and who will be "a partner with me in strengthening this economy for the middle class and working families."
"I want somebody who's independent, somebody who can push against my preconceived notions and challenge me so we have got a robust debate in the White House."
However, the comments did not reveal a clearer picture as to who will stand beside Obama at a rally Saturday in Springfield, Illinois, when the Democratic ticket holders will make their first joint public appearance, only two days before the National Convention starts in Denver, Colorado.
Source:Xinhua
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