I was interested to read this piece by Fred Barnes: “Slim Pickings: The Democrats’ weak bench.” Yes, the Democrats all seem limp or fossilized or both. But you know whom I kind of fear, as a stubbornly partisan Republican? Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. (Before he was elected to the Senate, he was mayor of Richmond, lieutenant governor, and governor.)
There is a theory that I sort of buy: In 2008, Barack Obama was set to pick Kaine as his running mate, but the Russo-Georgian War broke out, and Obama was judged to have responded to it badly (unlike John McCain). Obama then turned to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden.
You know why I kind of fear Kaine? What makes him formidable? He’s a human being — not an ideological robot.
Then again, I remind myself that Democrats have won, and handily, with their ideological robots . . .