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Who will be Obama's running mate?
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SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – Barack Obama's newly minted running mate will join the Democratic hopeful onstage Saturday at a rally in this capital city where Mr. Obama launched his White House bid, a campaign official said.
A senior Obama adviser said yesterday that Mr. Obama and his vice-presidential choice will appear in front of the former state Capitol where Abraham Lincoln once served. The last time Mr. Obama appeared there, he announced he was running for president.
The disclosure narrowed the window Mr. Obama has to reveal his running mate. The list of possibilities is widely believed to have come down to Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who planned to campaign with Mr. Obama tomorrow in his home state.
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on August 18, 2008. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
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Obama strategist Anita Dunn wouldn't respond directly when asked if the Springfield event would be Mr. Obama's first appearance with his choice, but she suggested the two wouldn't necessarily be related. The campaign has said it will announce the choice in a cellphone text message to supporters.
"We could pick up the V.P. any time," Ms. Dunn said.
The Obama campaign's announcement said only that the Illinois senator would begin his trip to the party's national convention at Saturday's event. The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Denver.
Those believed to be on Mr. Obama's short list also were keeping mum.
Mr. Biden coyly told reporters staking out his home in Delaware, "I'm not the guy," as he drove by. Ms. Sebelius, in an interview before she stumped for Mr. Obama in Michigan, professed no inside knowledge of when word would come.
"A week from tomorrow we will all know," Ms. Sebelius said, referring to when the running mate is scheduled to accept the nomination at the convention.
Mr. Obama was coy yesterday about names, but was adamant that his choice would never be taken for a clone of Dick Cheney.
"Here's what I won't do," the Illinois senator told a raucous crowd of 2,600 people at an evening rally in Raleigh, N.C., launching an outspoken attack on President George W. Bush and his secretive and enormously influential deputy, Mr. Cheney.
"I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice-president without knowing necessarily what he's doing. I won't have my vice-president engineering my foreign policy for me," Mr. Obama said.
He stayed clear of dropping any names, with an announcement expected any day now. But perhaps revealingly, he repeatedly used the pronoun "he," suggesting the pick will not be a woman, such as Senator Hillary Clinton.
"My vice-president also, by the way, will be a member of the executive branch; he won't be one of these fourth branches of the government where he thinks he's above the law," he said.
The running-mate decision also looms for Republican John McCain. In the hope of grabbing the post-convention spotlight from Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain is considering naming his running mate in the few days after the Democrats leave Denver and before the Republicans begin their convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Mr. McCain's top contenders are said to include Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Other possible choices include former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential pick in 2000 who now is an Independent.
Underscoring how seriously Mr. McCain may be considering Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman, Republican officials say top McCain advisers have been reaching out to big donors and high-profile delegates in key states to gauge the impact of putting an abortion-rights supporter on the GOP ticket.
