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Why not Jack Reed for VP?
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Jack Reed is the senior senator from Rhode Island. Not exactly a big battleground state, so that's one strike against him. Reed is also known in Washington for his modesty and decency, traits more often regarded as character flaws and liabilities there, but valued everywhere else. Born to working class Catholic parents, Reed managed to get an appointment to West Point, became an Army Ranger and an officer in the 82nd Airborne. After leaving the Army, Reed went to Harvard Law and, later, ran for and won a House seat in 1980 and moved to the Senate in 1996.
Sen. Reed, even more than Sen. Obama, has helped shape the mainstream Democratic position on Iraq. And unlike Sen. Obama, he has done so with a background of personal experience, and with the benefit of a hefty investment of time on the ground in Iraq. Indeed, this week’s trip is Sen. Obama’s second to Iraq; it is Sen. Reed’s 12th.
I first wrote about Senator Reed in May. At the time, John McCain had been carrying on about Barack Obama not having visited Iraq in several years and, because he had been there eight times, he was in a better position to assess the war and it's progress. In my post in May, I pointed out that if visits were a criteria for understanding Iraq, we really shouldn't be listening to John McCain but Jack Reed, as he had been there twelve times and thought the Iraq war was a major strategic mistake for the United States (Reed voted against the authorization to use force in Iraq in 2002).
I noted, at the time, another major difference between the McCain and Reed Iraq trips: McCain routinely travels with lots of press (remember the Baghdad market scene?) and, typically, confers only with military officers in very coodinated meetings. Reed is famous in Iraq for making it difficult on his hosts; asking to travel outside the heavily protected Green Zone to far flung American bases to meet American servicemen and women. Reed is also well known for his lengthy, (and available) reports written subsequent to his visits to Iraq (an example is here). I've looked for similar trip reports from Senator McCain and have been unable to find any.
Senator Reed has a good progressive record on domestic policy and he's developed real expertise on education and housing policy. While the Senator may be considered the antithesis of the kind of politician who ought to be vice president, he's a decent, smart guy. For what it's worth.
And it seems like we ought to be hungry for decent and smart.
Topics: Obama , VP , Jack Reed
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