By Denise Ross

SD’s former senator Tom Daschle, currently incommunicado somewhere in Africa?, is on the list of potential Obama VPs released late last week by CBS News.

TAD weighs in at No. 7:

Tom Daschle

An early and eager supporter for Obama, who appears to have forged a close relationship with the former Majority Leader. A consummate insider helps soothe concerns of inexperience but also brings a lot of insider baggage. And what happened to Obama in South Dakota?

What happened to Obama in South Dakota? Oh, yeah. That.

Daschle is listed behind, in order of ranking:

• Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
• Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (who’s been making the TV rounds this past week)
• Nebraska Sen. and Republican Chuck Hagel (the new John McCain)
• New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
• New York Sen. Hillary Clinton
• Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

Daschle is listed ahead of:

• Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd
• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
• Former VP candidate John Edwards

For what it’s worth, I think Sebelius, Bayh and Bloomberg are appropriately ranked - with maybe Bloomberg deserving a higher ranking given his economic expertise and his bi-partisan credentials. Clinton and Biden are dead on arrival due to their inability to be subserviant, which I only dock them points on in this VP arena. Otherwise, that’s A-OK by me. Hagel’s a Republican after all. Just sayin’.

Insiders have repeatedly told me that Richardson’s got more baggage than would be prudent, so I defer to that Beltway wisdom and say he’s appealing in theory only.

Meanwhile, perhaps more newsworthy, the NBC News team put a pretty tight timeline on when we might expect a VP announcement from Obama on Meet the Press (w/ SD’s own Tom Brokaw) on Sunday.

CHUCK TODD: I’ve got it on pretty good authority, this is not going to be done right before the convention, and it’s not going to be done during the Olympics.  Well, you start backtracking when Obama’s going to pick his running mate…

DAVID GREGORY:  Two weeks.

MR. TODD:  Exactly.

TOM BROKAW:  Yeah.

MR. TODD:  The minute he gets back from this trip, that’s what they’re going to be in is in VP mode.  And so this trip matters.  There is some comfort level that he wants to see if he has with Jack Reed.  But I’ll tell you, it is–this is, this is going to happen a lot quicker than I think people realize.

So the speculation will soon cease, to the great relief of many, I’ve no doubt. Mark your calendars for the first week of August. 

Spread the word

Hide Sites