Bill Sammon, The Examiner
2008-07-30 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday he would not turn down an offer to be Barack Obama’s running mate, although he declined to say whether he is being vetted by the campaign.

“I haven’t sought it, I’m not running for it, I’m not asking for it,” Kaine said in Washington. “I never asked anything of the campaign. I didn’t endorse him to get anything. I endorsed him to help him.”

Eighteen months ago, when most analysts figured Hillary Clinton would end up with the Democratic presidential nomination, Kaine took a political gamble by becoming the first governor outside of Illinois to endorse that state’s freshman U.S. senator. Obama never forgot that show of good faith and has reportedly put Kaine on his short list of potential vice presidents.

Kaine, a former missionary who speaks fluent Spanish, could increase Obama’s chances of winning Virginia, which has chosen Republicans in recent presidential elections. But his relatively short governing resume could add to concerns about Obama’s inexperience.

“This could be a head fake because Kaine, like Obama, has very little experience,” said a Republican operative based in Virginia. “Kaine’s previous experience was as mayor of Richmond, an important city, but the comparisons to Wendell Willkie are already out there.”

Willkie, a political neophyte, was crushed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election.

The operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added: “Kaine would be an interesting pick, but Mark Warner’s the strongest Democrat in Virginia and would win the state for Obama hands down — I don’t think Kaine could do the same thing.”

Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said the buzz about Kaine “might be real, might be a head fake. My guess is that Kaine would add a point or two in Virginia to Obama, so it’s not insignificant, but isn’t necessarily the election either.”

Not all Democrats are fond of Kaine. Some environmentalists object to the governor’s decision to support construction of a coal plant in southwestern Virginia.

“Everybody in America who cares about global warming should know more about Tim Kaine’s position on coal,” Mike Tidwell, director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, told The Examiner. “Tim Kaine is the No. 1 reason that the state of Virginia, as we speak, is building a massive, coal-fired power plant that will emit 5 million tons of new greenhouse gases every year.”

In addition to Kaine, Obama is considering several other possible running mates, including Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, whose early support of Clinton could help bridge the divide between the Clinton and Obama camps.

Obama said Sunday he wants a vice president who “complements me, in the sense that they provide a knowledge base or an area of expertise that can be useful.”

bsammon@dcexaminer.com